I Don’t Want to do it

I don’t want to do it

For several years, I worked at a local college as a Resident Director of one of the Residence Halls. Throughout my years in that role, I had quite a few students serve on my staff as Resident Assistants in the building. There were a variety of roles that the RAs fulfilled, but one of the things that each of them were required to do was to walk through the building every so often on nights when they were on duty to make sure everything was ok and no students were getting into any kind of trouble. We had an office in the lobby with a logbook. When on duty, each RA was expected to fill out log sheets to make note of any issues encountered throughout the evening. I remember each and every one of my RAs, but one of the most memorable ones was a guy named Nate. Nate was the most engaging and charismatic guy you could ever meet. He loved being around people and really navigated relationships well. He did not however have an attention to detail. It was a very rare occurrence that I would see even the smallest pencil mark in the log book after a night of Nate on duty, even when I knew that something had happened in the building. So I finally asked Nate what was going on. His response was that he just wasn’t good at detail things and he couldn’t remember to do it. Time and time again he displayed a real weakness for any kind of attention to detail. And he knew it. And he basically forfeited any responsibility for that part of his job because he didn’t like it and didn’t feel like he was good at it.

This was a problem. And it wasn’t just a problem for Nate. It is a problem for many of us. Few of us have the perfect job or the perfect family or the perfect anything. You might be close. But I am pretty sure that there is something, at least one thing, that you have to do or need to do that you just don’t like or feel you are not really equipped to do. Maybe it is doing payroll at your business. Maybe it is disciplining your kids. So here is the thing. You can just decide that you aren’t going to do it like Nate did with the log book, and maybe people will be gracious and patient with you. Maybe someone else will even step in and pick up your slack (even though we all know that is just enabling a behavior, but some of us are just fixers, aren’t we?). In Nate’s circumstance, he needed the maturity to step up and realize that he had to do the things he didn’t want to do. He had a job that had certain requirements. He was responsible for all aspects of his job, not just the fun ones.

But some of us are dealing with things that may be legitimately outside of what we are capable of doing. Nate just decide he wasn’t going to do something. Some of us actually can’t. Maybe it requires a specialized skillset. Maybe it requires years of training. Maybe it requires an amount of time you just do not have. Find someone who can help. Find someone with the skillset or the training or the time. We don’t often have the luxury of not doing things in our lives, particularly important things. When they don’t get done, we suffer. And often others suffer as well. You might just have to suck it up and do it. You are not the only person in the world who is facing an unpleasant or boring or intimidating task today. But if you can’t do it, find someone who can. That is exactly what we love to do here at the High Road Agency. Whether it is the constantly changing landscape of Facebook or rebranding or how to make your website look good on an iPhone, we are here to take care of the things that you don’t have the time or the experience to manage. Maybe you don’t want to do it. Good thing we do.

Written by Seth Penley

Written by Seth Penley

Creative Producer Contact Seth

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