Think Win-Win

There hasn’t been many instances that I thought about making a situation into a win-win situation, but I do every once in a while. There is one time that really stands out in my mind though about a win-win situation.

My family and I were having dinner one night. All the way through dinner we conversed and all was well until dessert, a batch of brownies, came out of the oven. As my mom was bringing them to the table my brothers and I were drooling over them. My mom is reputable when it comes to baking brownies. It was a small pan so every one of the six of us got one and there was one brownie left. Well my brother and I both being heavy eaters really wanted the last brownie and we started bickering. This happened for probably a good ten minutes while every one else was cleaning up. So I decided to compromise. If my brother got that brownie then the next time we had dessert I got whatever was left over. He agreed as he devoured his prize. The next week my mom made muffins and there were two left after supper. My brother mad with himself kept his promise and we both won.

Be Proactive not Reactive

In Seven Habits of a Highly Effective Teen by Sean Covey one of the first topics Covey talks about is being proactive instead of reactive. There have been many times that I have been proactive instead of reactive, but there is one time that I will never forget.

One day I was with a friend messing around outside and we decided to go inside up to my room to play a video game, Madden NFL Football 2008. I had gone to the bathroom while he was waiting in my room. I came in and everything looked like it had when I had been in there earlier. We started playing and then I noticed that my mp3 player, a Zune, was not on its charger where I had left it. I didn’t say anything to my friend though I had suspicions. About fifteen minutes later my mom came in and I asked her if she had seen my mp3 player to see how my friend to react. She informed me that my little brother had borrowed it because he was going to Little Rock. I am glad I did not suddenly react when I found that it was missing and accuse my friend. I thought before I acted and that may have just saved my friendship.