Monday, March 21, 2011

Preaching to the choir could cost you...

“Preaching to the choir…”

We’ve all said it, we’ve been face to face with friends and coworkers that over use it and because it’s become part of our everyday language by way of negotiating there’s a 98.7% chance one of us is preparing to drop it right now, “I know! I’m preaching to the choir!”

The term preaching to the choir simply means: to commend an opinion to those who’ve already accepted it.

Originating in the United States in January of 1973 in the Lima News from Ohio, the reporter stated, “He felt like the minister was preaching to the choir. That is to the people who always come to church but not the ones who need it most.”

John Stuart Mill should get a few royalty points; in 1867 he penned out, “Preaching to the converted,” in his book An Examination of Sir W Hamilton’s Philosophy.

If you think songs on the radio sound the same as do the lyrics we speak during our normal everyday. Preaching to the choir is also connected to the loosely used term that George Edward Bateman Saintsbury coined in 1916 where he felt no fear when criticizing modern novelists calling it an act of kicking at open doors.

Goenglish.com attempts to bust our daily habit with an easy to digest suggestion, “Don’t just stand there preaching to the choir get out there and find new members!” The website believes too much energy is being wasted on readers, writers, searchers and wanderers that already know, understand and walk the path you’re preaching about.

While preaching, never take your eyes off those looking back; the choir being preached to could be pretending. Personally, I’ve always called this brave act nothing more than Coup sticking. Playing Coup is a game created by Native American’s who challenged each other to race up to another nations best warrior or chief and touch them, share conversation and or reach out to them during a least expected moment. Although it was looked upon as being nothing more than a game…in a modern world of corporate growth such actions and reactions are taken extremely serious and instantly bring unseen information to decision makers addicted to getting ahead of the competition.

Which is an avenue millions of American’s crisscross everyday due 100% to our need to survive; very few of us are getting by holding down one job. We are being hired into several positions based on what we know and what we’ve experienced; step back fifteen feet and the comparison of your jobs might not haunt you but it might send out an alert to your boss because how you’re spending your free time could be laying out the ground work of you shattering a non-complete clause.

In an age of economic crisis where jobs are less and keeping one is more difficult than preventing a heart attack, playing a game of Coup stick happens without anyone realizing its taking place. Preaching to the choir is exactly what George Edward Bateman described; kicking at an open door. As much as we understand what each of us are going through to make ends meet the disconnection occurs when your steps angle the path into a place of business that feeds a competitors hands.

Which came first the chameleon or the human? Now I’m preaching to the choir.

I dream of one day being a Wal-Mart greeter. It’s my addiction to a single page located in the book that describes Hollywood’s best actors aren’t those being paid $20 million a picture but the ticket takers gifted with a friendly smile and the knowledge of every picture being shown; they should be able to reach out and share conversation with every person walking through the door. I love it when Home Depot employees not only know where the double headed screws are but physically take me to them. I keep going back because the person at the door makes me feel more loved than my Momma.

Being a Wal-Mart greeter and the front man at a hardware store isn’t a comfortable place because they’re indirectly competing. So are hard working chefs frying burgers at separate shacks. Although I’ve never worked at a grocery store common sense tells me that bagging and stocking at competing locations is a red flag. How do managers and department heads find out? Preaching to the choir!

An incredible example is based on my broadcasting experience; I cannot ever work for two competing radio companies. I can’t own stock in another broadcasting company nor can I donate my time as a broadcaster to a public radio or television station to help them raise funds to stay on the air. I get it!

My radio mentor Andrew Ashwood constantly pushed his talent to dig deeper into the history and future of the business by constantly wrapping ourselves around radio’s existence. To stand in the hallway of a station talking about how we’d like to become the top dog in town is preaching to the choir. It was Andrew’s deepest ambition to reach into schools of broadcasting to help kick open the door for future leaders only to learn such schools are in the business to compete. Therefore you rarely see me in a classroom yet in the real world of radio there are no walls inside the boundary that describes an internship.

“Don’t just stand there preaching to the choir get out there and find new members!”

In Martial Arts we are trained to never stop training…are you less of a Martial Artist if the only studies you do are within the school and never outside the four walls of one way the Master’s way?

For accountants tax season is their Christmas. The pay might be good to great but the hours are long and sometimes too much to handle. Preaching to the choir is hosting an after work party featuring only accountants. Finding new members is taking the time to shake hands and kiss babies in May, June and July; coming up with fresh methods of delivering security to every soul in this country that fears the IRS and or big business tax companies more interested in getting your money than helping you locate loopholes geared toward saving.

Are you preaching to the choir? When you know the whereabouts of the history behind the words we share the end result might physically be a new expression based on influencing you to move toward a better day.

I’ll always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

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