Different is Difficult

Every day you agitate is a day you’ll face pushback

Yesterday, I listened to Seth Godin’s Akimbo podcast, specifically the “The Regular Kind” episode.

Like much of Seth’s work, he communicated a bright, generous, and empathetic message about adoption. Nothing becomes the “regular kind” overnight if a model of it exists; things start as outliers, and if they are good enough, engaging enough, and shareable to the right tribe, that thing spreads.

His first example – tater tots. Those are normal to us now, even sold in schools.  Back when they first appeared, bizarre foodstuff. It took time and effort to get them to every freezer aisle in America. Along the way, people obstructed the process with slights real and imaginary.

Yes. Imaginary.

And that is what I am thinking about this morning. After hearing back from people over the last few years, I’ve realized that like me, the people who read this blog are people who are natural agitators.

We hate the phrase “because we’ve always done it that way” because we know there is a better way. Then we don’t sit and think about it, we agitate and try to change places. Then we end up pushed aside, marginalized, burnt out, and even fired. Rarely, if ever, is it about the work. We don’t fit the culture, so those imaginary slights people feel start to seem all the more real.

Different is difficult.

I wish there were a way, a method, or a framework that takes away cognitive bias,  but there isn’t. One thing we can do, though, stick together and learn from each other with the understanding that it is hard.

Especially since you know, you wouldn’t have it any other way.