I recently participated in a focus group…about butter. Yes…butter, spread, margarine…
I could probably spend the rest of this post talking about this somewhat unusual experience, but the real reason why I mention it is because it helped me come to a new understanding about myself. Actually, I have to give Ben props for this one, because when we were talking about going to the focus group, he pointed out that I just went ahead and agreed to participate in the study without giving it much thought. Was it a bad thing to do? Probably not…I even earned a little bit of money in the process. But was it necessary? Probably not.
This is my tendency. If I have to decide whether or not to do something, I look at my calendar, see if it will “fit” in my schedule, and if it does, and if it seems like a “good idea” I will usually say “yes”. The result? A pretty jammed schedule. Ben likes to say that you could be asked to do 20 things…all “good” things…but realistically, you should say no to 18 or 19 of them. I’m not good at this…at all. I need to be better at saying no to good things.
Like focus groups on butter…
