The Bear | No BS Coaching Advice
A story, mostly true, about the opening of a camp.
Mindset: Finding Meaning in Your Work
Most of this story is true. I listen to it last night and may take a liberty or two along the way to retell it.
I was listening to a man who runs a camp talk about the first day of camp. He was in his office as the campers were being dropped off, about 300 campers plus parents and grandparents, figure about 1000 people came into the parking lot saying goodbye to the kids for the summer.
He received a call from one of the counselors he knows to be a prankster saying, “there’s a bear in a tree next to the parking.”
“No, tell me the truth.”
“There’s a bear in a tree next to the parking lot.”
The camp director knows that if he diverts people to a different direction, he will be answering questions from 350 pairs of parents and grandparents.
“I want to know what’s going on.”
He went to the parking lot and found the tree, looks up, and, yes, there is a bear there. Four paws dangling down, sound asleep.
He decided to station a counselor nearby and deflect people away from the area, thus avoiding all the questions being asked. The bear continued sleeping. Everyone went on their merry way. Everything is fine.
In telling the story my friend continued to say (and I think it’s a lovely point), when you think about it when you meet a bear, what do you try to do?
The idea with the bear is to get as big as you can and as loud as you can and as wild as you can, knowing that most of the time you will chase the bear away.
It begs the question, “What about the bears in your life?” You know, those big bogeymen that wrestle with your mind. Should you let them sleep or should you scare them away?
What would really work best in your life?
When you think about it, there are lots of bears that are rumbling around in your life that live in your head and cause you a lot of distraction. They keep you awake at night and keep you from having the life that you want and keep you from making the choice that you know you need to make.
It’s a great metaphor; I hope you enjoyed it.
So remember, sometimes let the bear sleep but many times, you need to get BIG and scared off before it eats you up.
Knowing When It’s Your Time to Step Down
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search
Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 2300 episodes. He also hosts Job Search TV on YouTube, Amazon and Roku, as well as on BingeNetworks.tv for Apple TV and 90+ smart sets.
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