This weekend, I did the last thing on my “Cali things to do list”: visit Catalina Island (30 miles off the LA coast). Instead of just taking the ferry boat, I joined 8 friends and sailed there. Took a little bit longer, but it was much more fun and relaxing. My friend, Ilya, is a captain and helped put the trip together for us. I strongly recommend checking out one of his future trips. During my eight plus years in LA I’ve been fortunate enough to go on many weekend trips; I think I can say without hesitation this was in the top 10.
The collection of people ranged from three long time friends, four who I met earlier this year and one who I had never met before. We had about an seven year spread with ages, had mainly engineers and we worked for four different companies. I was the last one who signed up and admitted to the group I only went because they were the ones on the trip. We had an assortment of activities, but for pretty much the entire trip the group stuck together. If you’ve ever been with a group over four people, you know it’s hard to please everyone.
I don’t mean to seem to sound surprised, but I think I forget sometimes how who I associate with greatly impacts the enjoyment of doing things. I’ve organized trips for years and typically bring a lot of random people together rather than planning a trip for just specific people. Sometimes the randomness brings in some “negative Nellie’s.” We had a few different personalities, but a fundamental agreement on what we found fun. That fundamental understand and nine great attitudes was all we needed.
We all know one bad apple can spoil the batch, but do we take time to surround ourselves with the right people? I know at work we are somewhat limited, but I think we have more control that we realize. I’m not talking about eliminating diversity in a group, but rather better aligning yourself to be happy. Do you do away or address the people with poor attitudes? Or do you tolerate them and sacrifice your happiness?
To Hans, Ilya, Joan, Laura, Matt, Natalia, Scott, and Trish thanks for a great weekend.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
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2 comments:
Could not have had a better weekend, and could not agree with you more. Great group, great times.. to the boat times!
We did have an amazing group. That hike in the mountains was great too (still soar now). Thanks for joining the group and bringing the great attitude.
P.S. I need more pointing music!
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