The Noticer by Andy Andrews
This good-feeling read has been recommended to me over the past few years a number of times. I had it on my “to read” shelf, yet never got to it until now. As I am with my family, relaxing in Florida, this was the perfect read to continue to challenge myself to pay attention to the wonderful things all around me, to take responsibility for my choices and mistakes in life, and to be sure I am adding my perspective to the world. Andy Andrews has a number of books that are easy to read that have profound lessons within and The Noticer is another example of that. Well done Mr. Andrews!
The lessons I have taken away from this book reside more in the “reflections” side of things, yet many times those lessons are even more powerful than the “action” type of lessons. Here are a few of them:
1. There are choices and there are mistakes. I loved this “lesson” from The Noticer, as there are many times in life that I’ll say that I’ve made a mistake, when in all reality I had all the information I needed to make the “right” decision, yet chose not to. And in that we “soften” the lesson by saying “I made a mistake” when in reality I made the choice to do whatever it was I chose to do. It wasn’t a mistake, it was a choice. There is something very powerful in that – own your choices my friends, it will be a very unique sense of freedom because now you can do something about it to move on.
2. More than a simple apology is needed when you have made a choice that negatively impacted other people. If you make a simple mistake, all you must do is to apologize and more often than not the people involved are able to move on quickly. However in the case of a choice, you must not only apologize, but you must demonstrate true remorse and seek forgiveness. That is a whole different approach to things there. I can attest to seeing this many times in the professional/business world with relationships where people believe all they must do is apologize for things they have done or worst yet, they don’t even acknowledge the challenge and just look to push it “under the rug” and move on. That will break apart relationships, families, teams, and organizations quicker than anything else – lack of trust and lack of integrity to the team/group.
3. Perspective. The key here is to be able to build the “muscles” to be able to take a step back from things to notice all of the perspectives and things happening during a given situation. More often than not we get caught up in the midst of all the action and emotion, which doesn’t allow you to get a full perspective on all of the things and people’s feelings that may be being impacted in that given moment. Slow down and pay attention, ask great questions, care enough about others and the situation to listen more than you speak, and then do your best to make the best decision with the information and perspective you have gained. The more you do this, the easier it becomes.
I very much enjoyed this book, thank you Pamela Reynolds from Health Care Express in Texarkana, TX for staying after me to read it. Thank you for your perspective and having a positive impact on my growing perspective after reading this wonderful book. I highly recommend that you choose to add this book to your Success & Happiness Library my friends!
In Service to your Success,
Brandon Johnson
“Positive Energy Guy”
