In life we have two choices: experience or exist. Every week each of us make that choice: To seek a way to live or to simply get by. Walk alongside me each week on Strive Seek Find as we continue seeking our own Brilliant Future.
Today's episode I reach back to earlier days in my career and how to respond to people who choose to be passive agressive and how it led to my fictional law firm of Whitmore, Whiteman Whittemore and Whitman .
Hello there friends, both old and new. Welcome to the strive seek fine podcast. I'm your host, Chatsworth, home to bite size, lifestyle advice from a fellow traveler on the road to a better life. Brought to you by someone who is a longtime educator, writer, parent, and an outdoor enthusiast, who may just may like a good DRAM because our future is set not just through our choices, but by our willingness to explore and find a better way. Hello, friends, welcome to as I record this, the famous American holiday. Yeah, it will be by the time I finish President's Day weekend. I don't know about you. But I work a job where I have Monday off. So the entire weekend just feels a little less rushed. Because I tend to save up all the errands till Saturday or Sunday. And I'm out of bed at six hitting the grocery store and come right back and get cooking then out again for errands. So this is a nice, relaxing pace of play type day. And while I should be being productive today, I'll be honest about that. I'm not, I thought it'd be kind of fun to share something that I don't normally share. You see the nature of my job. Like many that deals with the public sector means that a good portion of what goes on during the day is protected, private. And I won't discuss most of that until I am long since retired. I do have a list of things. So if I ever decide and write down some of this stuff, it would make an unbelievable book. Because there's no way people will believe some of these stories. Now in this case, I can tell this because the when and the where really doesn't matter. And those of you who knew me in the days that this occurred, we'll know giggle just a little bit. But today I thought I'd share a story. The story of how I chance Whitmore ended up with my own personal law firm. The law firm of Whitmore, Whitman, Woody, more, white more, and whatever other wit you can think of. And I'll warn you before we start. Don't take legal advice from any of those guys. Who knows what they're thinking. Now let's get started. Where to begin? First off, there's the obvious disclaimer note. I am not an attorney, I have no interest in becoming an attorney. I don't have the patience, as far as I can tell for that. But where did this come from? If you have worked in a field where you are dealing with people a lot, you are eventually going to upset sad people sometimes, let's say a lot. And the why in the hell don't matter. Well, just suffice it to say I was trying to do my job. What that job at the time was a leave intentionally vague, other than to say my job was to make sure that I helped these people, whether they liked it or not. There in lies the point of contention and conflict. They didn't like the type of help I was able to offer. And while I wish I could share details to show that I did indeed try to lower this the level of concern with this or try to come to a conclusion that would allow all sides to feel like they've had a win that would tell you a little bit too much of the story at this point. So let's leave it at this. There was a process, there was a process ongoing that lasted for many hours over the course of many weeks before it got to the point of, we could not come to a workable solution. So I invited them to take it to the next person up the chain, as you do got to try to solve their problems somehow. And because I can't do these unscripted things without, let's say meandering all over the place. I'd like to just go ahead and throw out the person who unintentionally gave me this idea. Shout out to Heath over at the 14 podcast, he does a series of retirement rants from time to time. And they got me thinking about my own stories, and starting to sift and short sort on what I possibly someday could share. Now, there's a whole bunch I will share here in about 10 years when I'm done. Those I still remember, because let's be honest, my wife says what about this story? And until she prompts me I'm like, oh, yeah, that was hilarious. When it happened. I wonder why I don't remember it very well anymore. Anyways, now a word from our sponsor. Yes, Dad, how we how I could help his podcast. So he said I could make a commercial. Let's help get the word out. share this podcast with your friends. This is so important. We all get busy. Just the simple share helps keep people in the loop. One way you can do this is tagging the show, or using the keep seeking hashtag when you are talking about the show. Or leave a review on Apple podcasts or pod chaser reviews help people find the pod. And finally, if you want to help keep the lights on he's got a buy me a coffee setup, keep him and research materials so he can keep putting out more strive seek fine, the link is in the show notes. Thanks for listening to strive seek fight. Thanks, Trina for stepping in again this week and being my sponsor. Anyways, back to the visit with my boss. It took a little time. But afterwards, he came in to talk to me. And what came out of that meeting? Doesn't matter. It's one thing out of hundreds that year and probably hundreds of 1000s in the career. Slight overstatement for effect. So it doesn't matter now came in and said, Boy, they did not like you said Fair enough. I did my best. And he goes I know you did what you're supposed to do. And then he goes, but they showed it in an interesting way. I said what do you mean? Well, every time they mentioned you, you had a different last name. said Come on. They weren't being that passive aggressive. With me at least Nico Oh, no. They couldn't remember the name or didn't want to use the name Whitmore. So you were one time they'd ask a question. Well, that Mr. Whitman. So I'd have to correct them. And they would smile. And then they'd go, that Mr. Whitmore and then that Mr. Whiteman and several other variations. He giggled a little bit, he left my office. I was initially a little bit butthurt, to be honest with you. But then it hit me. It couldn't matter to me, I'd done my job to the best of my ability. Someone was upset. I can't control their responses. I can choose how I can how I respond myself. So I had to let it go. If that was going to eat at me, I was going to be done with the job long before now. And it sat in the back of my mind and I told a couple of my friends what was going on and slowly but surely it morphed and became something there's actually a video out there somewhere of me on a hike knocking down a tree as a quote unquote Chase Whitman Attorney at Law. It became a joke. And it continued to become a joke. So one day I came across a lawyer's card that someone had dropped on my desk. It was the standard card that you get. When you're walking out of diners and confined the attorneys listed. They're here call us when you have these concerns. So for fun, I sat down, and I printed out the names Whitman, white, more women, and white more Attorneys at Law, I stuck it to the card and pinned it to my boss's wall. Because it was uproariously funny. By that point. One of my best friends still read make sure to at least twice a week refer to me as Chase white more just because it amuses him. The lessons I learned from this are obvious, I think, one, you can't let things get personal and you can't let them eat you. And if someone else tries to make it personal, to make you mad, you got to put it aside. And remember, they're probably doing the best they can. And if they try to personalize it, step back. Breathe, let it go. Because when the situation is over, it could be the funniest damn thing you've ever heard. So tonight, this is Chase Whitman. Fictional Attorney at Law, letting you know that no trees were destroyed in the creation of this podcast, even as I sign off Well, friends that's it for this week's edition of strife seek find. Thank you again for listening. If you'd like to join the discussion, or have ideas for future episodes, hop on over to the strife seek find podcast group on Facebook. Alternatively, if Facebook's not your thing, you can find me on Instagram at strife seek find podcast on Twitter, as at chance Whitmore five, or even on email. The links for all those are in the show notes below. Until next time, my friends, keep seeking your own brilliant future
