Never Lose Those Meaningful Interactions

Recently, a planner colleague of mine, who is in her 20s, told me that she was losing her mind. Not literally, of course – but rather in that tongue-in-cheek manner that we all seem to express from time-to-time.

"Welcome to the club," I said back in jest, "It only gets worse!"

However, as I sat back and thought about this comment more – I realized just how serious that statement is becoming these days. Given the extreme multitasking lives we all lead today, the idea that we might be "losing" something starts to become very real indeed. With that in mind, let me offer this anecdote from life just recently:

Last week, I took out the trash and recycling in the morning when I left for work.I had my travel mug full of coffee (trying not to spill it on myself, of course), along with my keys, phone and wallet.I proceeded to put my coffee and keys in the car, then my phone in my pocket, and finally my wallet ... on the roof of the car.About 20 minutes into my commute, I get a call from my wife who proceeds to tell me that a Westwood police officer found my wallet in the middle of Rt. 109 on his way home from his shift.Guess who forgot to take his wallet off the roof? I must have driven two or three miles before it fell off. How lucky am I? What an idiot!!My wife has said she now has a get out of jail free card for the next three stupid things she does. Of course, when I went to the Police station to pick up my wallet the next day they knew exactly who I was, since they had my license of course, and we had a few chuckles at my expense; and rightfully so.

Yes, this is a true story ... I can’t make this stuff up. It makes you wonder, what are we forgetting in our professional lives? Do we travel through life so fast that we forget to say thank you, like the person working the window at the drive thru? Do we skip the chit chat and an opportunity to interact with a colleague because there is just too much on our plates? As CMPs, how do we balance the crazy with the chaos?

We have so many opportunities daily to create meaningful interactions, to engage, to lead, to develop and to learn. As CMPs, we are united in support of lifelong learning as well as promoting industry standards, enhancing best practices and living by a code of ethics and integrity in our personal and professional lives that creates the benchmark of professionalism for which the designation stands. That means a lot to me, and I don’t want to forget any of it. Granted, there are some days I can’t get out of my own way, and I’m pretty sure I have some company in that category.

Here is what I ask of my fellow CMPs: Continue the good work moving our industry forward with civility, creativity and compassion.

I would like to leave you this month with a quote from Maya Angelou: "I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Yours in service,
Matt DiSalvo