Ignoring People

I decided to pay homage to one of my pushy friends this week (Scott “That Nametag Guy” Ginsberg) by literally taking a page from his book “Ideas Are Free, Execution Is Priceless” and executing one of the 366 daily insights as a personal challenge.

The entry for March 13 really spoke to me this year. This is the second or third year I’ve read his book. One page a day throughout the entire year — you should too. I take something new away every time I read it.  Here is March 13th’s entry:

Accepting Scott’s challenge to write down 20 people I should be ignoring sounded like an ideal task and would provide a baseline against which I could weigh the impact any individual’s words would/should have on my own attitude, opinions, and efforts.

Here are 20 people I think are worth ignoring…

1. People with attitudes that are worse than my own
2. People who have jobs they hate
3. People who make themselves feel big by making others feel small
4. People who don’t read
5. People who claim credit for the efforts/ideas of others
6. People who don’t share credit/glory
7. Liars and Cheats
8. People who have grown lazy/complacent
9. People not willing to go the extra mile
10. Anyone who says “that’s not my job”
11. People who don’t say Please/Thank You
12. People who don’t hold the door open or offer up their seat to the elderly
13. Ditto for guys who don’t do the same for a lady (call it outdated, chauvinistic, or sexist — I will call it chivalrous and polite.)
14. People who are all criticisms and no compliments
15. People who never take a chance
16. People who don’t do what they say they will do
17. People who are nice to your face, but talk behind your back
18. People who take ideas, but never share any
19. Bad tippers
20. People who never help make the bread, but are there to eat it (see Little Red Hen.)

I’m sure reasons for some of the entries are apparent, but some of them come from a personal experience that is unimportant to relate here — the important thing is that I have MY list and my reasons to ignore these people because they will not contribute to my personal success. Where’s YOURS?

Knowing who to LISTEN to is important — but it’s even more important to know who to IGNORE.