Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Are you a "Doer" or a "Waiter"

Progress on my latest painting.
This morning we were woken up the fire alarms in my apartment building all going off at the same time. It's a hell of a way to wake up, let me tell you. My husband's first reaction was "oh it's just the fire alarm" and he started to lay back down. I got up immediately and started to evacuate the building. I was more than a little surprised at how many people looked out their door, and then went back inside. There was no way you could tell if there was an actual fire just by popping your head outside. I live in a corner building and there was a whole other entrance that people couldn't see, but that didn't seem to bother them. When we were outside, only three other neighbors bothered to evacuate the building. Nobody seemed to know what to do. Everyone, especially the people inside, seemed to be waiting for someone to make the alarms stop and take care of what was going on. These people were "waiters", and not in the restaurant sense, either. They were just waiting for someone else to make things happen, to take care of things for them.

Detail #1 of my latest painting.
I am not a waiter. I am a doer. I called 911 and notified them that the alarms were going off (the alarms aren't attached to a 911 system). I let my neighbors know what the 911 operator said. I called my landlord to notify him of the situation. When the firefighters arrived and checked out the situation, I went and talked to them and found out when it was safe to go back inside. Then I let my neighbors know. I am a doer. I don't like waiting around, waiting for people to tell me what to do.

I think this is a good indication of how people are in life. Some people wait around for things to happen. They wait for people to tell them what to do and how to do it rather than figuring it out themselves or being self-motivated. They don't make their lives happen, they wait for it to happen.

Detail #2. This is about 90% done at this point,
Then there are doers, people who make things happen. They know what they want and they makes things happen. They are the ones who take charge of their own lives and don't make excuses. I am a doer and I make no excuses for it.

So what are you? A doer or a waiter?

1 comment:

  1. Hi Jhina:
    Interesting post...I believe I am a doer...'tho a big procrastinator when it comes to any kind of paperwork, bills, filing...that kind of stuff. But something of importance like my work or deadlines...ha! right on it!

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