It's a Team's Life

What world do you live in?

By Bob & Linda Caffee
Posted Jul 5th 2011 3:05AM

The first thing that made me think we might not be from the same world is he lives in another country and the second item is that we do not drive the same type vehicle.

That does not seem like such a big deal, as everything else is the same. He breaths air, I breathe air, he eats, and I eat, we both get up in the morning get dressed and drive for a living. I know that he speaks the truth on drivers he talks to and what he sees for himself on loads. His experiences are vastly different than mine and I am not sure why.

I wonder if we see a bigger majority of trucks leased to FedEx Custom Critical and also other Expediters. Is it because we are in a different size vehicle and we park near trucks our size? I really do not know why we have such different experiences.

I made a decision years ago to quit being a negative nelly and I have stayed true to that promise. When I am around negative people and find out the sky is falling I listen for a while to find out for myself if I am listening to Chicken Little or to facts. Often I have found rumor feeds upon rumor and some are pretty amazing. The person talking or adding the conversation believe they are talking about facts that usually another driver told them or something they perceived. I am learning perception is reality and facts do not mean much.

When I listen and something I hear does not ring true or it is something I have not experienced I start looking for the facts. First I look at our situation to see if I have missed a trend within my accounting. If that is not the problem I go to where the problem is supposedly happening to talk to the source to find out facts. This simple process keeps my head on straight.

This is not to say I do not listen to many stories of situations gone wrong and I do not have my on stories of situations gone wrong. I enjoy listening to people who have valid complaints and how they handled the problem and how they have moved on. To me there are people who stay wallowing around in the victim mode of thinking and others who move on. Some by deciding on how to deal with the problem and others by moving to a different situation. I can respect both responses, as they are not chronic complainers they had a problem and they solved the problem. I have also learned there are some things I can change and others I cannot, I worry about what I can change.

In ways I do live in a different world from my friend our situation is vastly different then his and we see different drivers than he does. When I get confounded or bamboozled by what I am hearing I not only have my own facts and figures to look at I have friends who are very quick to voice their thoughts and they are not sympathizers or enablers.