Grasping his son’s wrist with both hands, it was everything Henry could do to maintain his hold. He was acutely aware of the danger with each passing moment as his grip loosened. Reaching out with the arm not being held by his father, the professor stretched to recover the prize they had spent weeks searching for.
Disregarding the danger, his mind focused on the cup and only the cup, it took his father’s words to bring him back to reality. “Let it go, Indiana.” Snapping out of it, he turned and with his loose hand grabbed a hold of his father’s arms and began the process of saving his life. This is one of my favorite scenes in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, and I’ve quoted this movie line to myself and others more times than I can remember.
Just a few days ago, while I was working, a situation came up with my boss which set me off. I was doing my job, and had a plan in action when he came and changed it up. While I don’t mind micromanaging sometimes, yesterday I felt it was a dumb decision and as I worked through it I had to tell myself, “Let it go Indiana.” I even went as far as to write this little phrase on the windshield of the Polaris I drive at work so it would be a constant reminder to me throughout the day.
There are times when things just aren’t worth the fight; at work and also in life. When situations like this show up, what do you do, how do you handle them? I’ve seen men who will not let it go if they feel they’re right; they will fight for it regardless of what it might do to them in the future. Being right is more important to them than anything else, and it blinds them to what is going on.
Fighting for what you believe in is a noble thing, and there are times when you should stand your ground, but when you take a stand for every little thing it begins to look less like fighting for what you believe in and more like rage. And rage is just uncontrolled anger, which especially in the work environment will cause you more grief and way less return on your investment.
There is nothing wrong with taking the high ground in situations like these; which is what I did the other day. I did have a good venting session with one of my friends, working to get it off of my chest, but even though my way was a better use of resources and time, it was definitely not the hill for me to die on.
When you find yourself in one of these situations, tell yourself, “Let it go Indiana.” and do just that, let it go. Don’t expend energy going over it again and again in your mind. It will go a long way to helping you at work and with your relationships. After all, no one likes the person who always has to be right and fights every battle placed in their way as if their very lives depended on it. To quote Shakespeare from his play Henry the Fourth;
“The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life.“
There will be times in your life where using discretion at work or in your relationships will benefit you more than choosing to fight the battle and ending up losing your job or a friendship. Don’t let your attitude blind you to what could end up being your destruction.
Now you know what I think, what do you think?
All In A Knight's Work 