• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Margie ClaymanMargie Clayman

Marietta, OH

  • About Me
  • Marketing
  • Librarianship
  • Random Musings
  • Contact Me

Are you letting battles distract you?

May 29, 2011 by Margie Clayman Leave a Comment

When Abraham Lincoln found out that he had been elected President, he rejoiced for only a very short period of time. Yes, his ambition had been satisfied, but at a time that would try anyone’s soul. The battles that Lincoln faced were numerous. To just name a few, Lincoln had to deal with:

• Appeasing his new Republican Party, which itself was split on key issues, including whether slavery should be abolished or simply not allowed to extend to new territories

• Appeasing all of the people who had helped him win, including key political figures from Pennsylvania, whom other members of his proposed cabinet disliked a great deal

• Appeasing the Democrats, whom he knew he would have to work with

• And of course, trying to keep the United States united.

It would have been easy, so easy, for Lincoln to choose just one of those huge issues and dedicate all of his time to it, leaving the other issues simmering in the pot. He could certainly have made a strong case for it. He could have told men like Seward and Chase, “Look guys, I don’t know if you noticed, but our country is coming apart. Could you maybe get past your own selves here?”

But, there is no record of any such statement. Lincoln dealt with all of these issues and more simultaneously because he had one supreme and over-arching goal in mind – protect his people and their union.

What battles are you fighting?

In our own lives, we have distractions aplenty too, although they might not be at the same level of significance that Lincoln’s were. In the online world, we are perpetually distracted by battles, whether we realize it or not. For example:

• Are you battling against a competitor?

• Are you battling against someone who seems like a rival?

• Are you battling to get more follows or more subscribers or more comments?

• Are you literally battling with people?

When you think about engagement in light of this conversation you can see why it can very easily become a double-edged sword. Yes, it’s great to meet people, but the more people you meet, the more people you might want to compete against. The more people you meet, the more you wonder why they are reading other blogs and not yours. The more people you meet, the more likely you are to get entangled in people stuff.

Discipline is the name of the game

The key, above all things in the online world, and in life in general, is to discipline yourself to work towards that one key goal. There are so many side paths that can take you off that path, and some of them might look pretty darned tempting, but you just can’t be sure if those paths are going to wrap you back around to your goal, so it’s best to just walk the path that you know for sure will get you there. That’s not to say that you can’t look around and admire the other paths, or maybe take a step or two down those little side roads. But you always want to keep your eyes on that path you need to be on.

Lincoln was able to do this admirably. Unlike so many important leaders, Lincoln did not get mired in scandal and political turmoil once he established his cabinet. There was not time for such things, and he knew it, and he instilled that into those around him. There was one over-arching, supremely important thing, and that was always in his mind’s eye.

Set your goal and get to walking

What is your objective? Where do you need to go? Answer that question, find your path, and start walking it, or jogging it, or running it. Deal with distractions. Deal with battles. But do not let them sway you from where you know you need to go. That is what great leaders of engagement are made of.

Make sense?

This is post #62 in The Engagement Series. If you are worried about missing a post, please feel free to hit the subscribe button.

Image by Timo Laaksonen. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Tmou

Filed Under: Marketing Talk, Musings

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Post: « 30Thursday 14: Better late than never
Next Post: A Reminder of What I Could Not Bear »

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Seeing Double: African American Literature
  • Book Review: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
  • Book Review: Land of Lincoln, by Andrew Ferguson
  • The portrayal of the infertile woman in entertainment
  • Chapter 3: A Weird Thing Happened Today

Recent Comments

  • Delores Baskerville on Are you locking out blog subscribers?
  • frank c tripoli on Book Review: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
  • Lyv on #30Thursday number 10 (we’re in the double digits?!?)
  • Fitoru on New Recipes, 2013
  • Anna Wyatt on Help me petition to deactivate driver-side airbags for Little People

Archives

  • February 2021
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2017
  • October 2016
  • July 2016
  • April 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • December 2014
  • October 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • February 2014
  • December 2013
  • October 2013
  • August 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2007
  • April 2007

Categories

  • Book Reviews
  • Crafts and Charity
  • Gardening for Renters
  • Marketing Talk
  • Molly Maggie McGuire
  • Musings
  • PassionPlayers
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Footer

marjorie.clayman@gmail.com

   

Margie Clayman © 2021