Looking for Improvement

"Never criticize improvement, no matter how small" anonymous

I have to start this blog off with this particular quote. I may say this, as it pertains to many quotes I reference, but this is truly one of my favorites. One of the reasons why I appreciate the sentiment that this quote communicates, is because day in, and day out, we have to make improvements in our lives. Much of the depression and heartache felt in this world is a direct result of not focusing in on this mantra. I think that if individuals would be more patient with each other, and themselves, not because they expect mediocrity out of humanity, but because in general, people are just doing the best that they can in their lives.

This example can be seen hundreds of thousands of times across many customer service exchanges that occur each day. A great example of this can be missed in the short term and never realized in the long term if we are not looking for and simply expecting improvement.

I am a manager at a credit union. Now this particular credit union got into trouble. You could say that the economy was bad, you could say that there were poor decisions made in management. You might even be able to narrow it down to the point that you can say, there is one person that made us fail, but the reality is, there were many reasons why we failed. I choose to believe that many variables created the environment that allowed us to fail, but even today, we have not closed our doors. The name has changed, your account number has changed, and you may even notice that you have a MasterCard debit card instead of a VISA debit card, but the improvement has happened. The universe has not conspired against you to make life more difficult and you can see the improvement if you are looking for it.

Where is this improvement to be found? You can find it in the lives of each employee that is stronger because they stuck it out through pay cuts, layoffs and budget slashing. You can find it in the merger of a small credit union that was years away from being able to afford the technology that would allow better access, products, and resources to its membership. You can now find it with the backing of a large institution that has been disciplined enough to put themselves into a position to even offer assistance to a small financial institution that WAS failing. You can find it in the membership who has been loyal to their credit union through the good and the bad. The credit union is not failing any more. It is thriving, and it will continue to do so. Why you might ask, because the individuals are trying today, to do a little better tomorrow.

This is not about business, this is about life. Each one of us has within us our own expectations of what we want out of life. Each day we are working towards that vision. Each day we either move closer to our goal, or farther from it, but if we stop and look around us for a brief moment, we might realize that we are not the same person that we were a month ago, a year ago, or a decade ago. Do we really want to be? No, we want to improve, we need to improve, it is what makes life worth living. Why are the ruts in life so hard to climb out of? Because we are not improving. Stop criticizing that the improvements that we are looking for are not coming fast enough, and just make sure that improvements are occurring and life will seem much more enjoyable.

Well, there you have it. My first quote, but now is the part where you come in. Do you agree, or disagree? Am I off my rocker, or not? Leave a comment, leave a story of why this might ring true for you, and maybe, just maybe, we can learn something from each other and make a small improvement in our own lives.