|
READ THOSE SIGNS
Friday Aug. 23, 2019
Disruptions happen.
So many possibilities result. And opportunities abound. Whether disruptions to our day, routine, lifestyles, or our health – we react. Then we act.
We’ve been conditioned, schooled in finding problems, fixing – then returning to as we were, but not all disruption should be handled that way.
If that’s a door bell ring, we hear it and likely rush to the door. That’s normal polite behavior.
When phones ring, when text message or email arrives, do we owe that same courtesy and urgency?
I’m not sure we have such a duty, or that senders have such expectations. I observe people on their devices – their distraction is immediate, response often as swift. We all know someone who hastily hit ‘reply’ too soon, or hit ‘reply to all’ by mistake – we’ve all done it.
Disruption of ‘how I can do things’ – for an hour is an inconvenience. For a day, it is wretched. For two days, time for pause to examine priorities. For three days, time to reinvent some things. For four days, it’s a new me. On the fifth day … maybe we created something new.
Disruptions deserve urgency when they are urgent. Otherwise disruptions are something to be managed. If we manage them as routine mind-numbing annoyances we likely won’t find much magic because they all look start to look the same.
However, if we see disruptions as road signs, we can tune our sensibilities to notice differences between: slow, stop, bridge out, lookout point, rocks on road, etc.
Mining opportunities, road-blocks, and time wasters is so important – choosing opportunities we capitalize upon, or ones we lose or miss completely … .
Reader feedback:
Hi Mark, You and I were thinking along similar (time)lines. My Born Free letter yesterday was also about how we perceive the passage of our minutes. If you are interested, here’s the link: https://bornfree.substack.com/p/all-the-many-things Best, GB, Waukesha, WI
|
|
