Thursday, October 16, 2008

Don't Judge That Book

If you have been a reader of this BLOG for any length of time you very well know that I continually preach that you should never (and I mean never ever, ever) judge a book by it's cover. Clearly I am not talking about my book silly! No, what I am mean is you should never judge the connections you make and simply take them for face value. Because if you do you will absolutely be sorry. I almost was.

Shortly after I released my book a few years ago I met a lady that I could have easily overlooked. She was a bit wonky. She was a bit "out there." Though she was clearly an instant fan of my Ripple philosophy our brief interactions were often convoluted and her conversations with me somewhat spastic. Though she really seemed to like me I initially was not drawn to her.

It would have been easy to avoid her, even though that is a partial lie; she seemed to appear out of no where and was at most events I spoke at here locally. I could have ignored the very lengthy emails she sent to me about how the Ripple applies to this or that situation. I could have freaked out a bit when she found my phone number and started calling me just to chat about Ripples. I could have easily overlooked this very assertive and somewhat direct individual and what would have been the harm in that?

Plenty I can assure you.

There was a reason our paths crossed. I had to keep reminding myself of that each time she seemed to track me down at the less than ideal time. I had to remember my own philosophy that people come into your life for a very specific reason and it was my job (and at times it did feel like a job) to find out why.

So I was patient. Our interactions eventually grew more cohesive and congruent. I realized her often assertive behavior and fast talking was a by-product of her so working herself up to talk to me. I let her in and somehow she instinctively knew it and she became more comfortable around me and I think in some ways, in her own skin. Our casual chats suddenly became opportunities to enjoy each others' company, ideas and dreams.

Fast forward to present day and a meeting I recently had with a top, nationally recognized company all because of her. She made meeting with a top executive I likely would never have met on my own possible. When the meeting occurred I was told by the same top executive that this woman was so adamant that she meet with me that she couldn't refuse. Apparently I was pre-billed as "the guy this executive needed to meet." And because of that meeting a world of possibilities are beginning to open up to me - possibilities I squarely owe to a women I now consider a friend.

Who is repeatedly appearing in your life that maybe you need to reset or altogether suspend your judgment of them? Who did you perhaps initially judge too harshly? Take another shot of discovering why they seem to be hanging around. I guarantee you life has a reason for it. Don't just take my word for it....go discover it for yourself.

Steve's Words of Ripple:

Remember - judging a book by its cover only prevents you from reading the real story contained within.

Ripple On!!!

4 comments:

Sue said...

Hrm, food for thought.

I had to subscribe to this in email because for some reason your blog is not updating in Google Reader anymore. I had no idea you were updating at all! Ugh. I probably need to reset (ahaha) the subscription.

Tara said...

Mine's not updating either. . .

Unknown said...

hi steve,
mine stopped updating, too. and i didn't want to miss your good stuff.

so true about your thought at the end. great point.

hey, i left you an AWARD at my bloggy today. come see.

http://sogratefultobemormon.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/award-i-super-scribble-and-you-do-too/

you do awesome things here,
kathleen :)

Steve Harper said...

Sue, Tara and Kathleed,

I am not sure what happened to the feed but hope you can update your readers so you will continue to get my BLOG posts.

Perhaps the change had something to do with the design elements I just had done. Not sure.

At any rate...sorry about that!

Ripple On!!!