Not my circus, not my monkeys

We live in a world where everyone blames everyone else and then makes rules to turn this world into a utopia. Of course this will never work and people need to take personal responsibility. One things that is very common these days is for people to come to me and try to rope me into their drama. For a pastor like me, I get requests to do everything from fix someone's computer, go with them to the cell phone store or simply unclog a toilet. I am a busy man and I need to know what is my responsibility and what is not. If someone comes to me and tries to pull me away from something important to get involved in their drama, I simply say, "not my circus, not my monkeys." This is a very old Polish proverb which basically means that your circus is yours and my circus is mine and I will not run, fix, repair or manage your circus. So remember, the next time someone tries to pile on drama that is not yours.

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Remembering the Franklin Day Planner

This week I have been rereading Hyrum Smith's book "The 10 Natural Laws of Productivity and Happiness." This book was written in the late 1980s and I remember reading it for the first time when I was working at Seagate Technologies, after my time in the Air Force. The core tool talked about in the book is the Franklin Day Planner . I remembering having one such planner, long before smart phones and Palm devices. Mine was a leather bound loose-leaf binder with calendar and note pages in it. I kept my daily tasks list and appointments in that binder, which became a record of my work history at Seagate and beyond. The Day Planner binders, pages and supplies were sold at a store called Franklin Quest , which was located at Valco Mall in Sunnyvale. At that time, I was a computer programmer. I was able to keep a record of all request for software, who made the request and when and what the requirements were. It seemed that I was the only one keeping a record of this b...

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