DID NOT SEE THAT COMING
Monday, February 22, 2021 - daily column #6676
Losses we understand can be measured.
But loss of opportunities we missed entirely cannot be calculated.
If we aren’t looking, we won’t see them coming or going.
Our loss could be huge.
Without anticipation, every fresh opportunity could just as swiftly become wild excitement or a faint snore. But when invested with our attention, we notice little things we ordinarily miss, and ideas get deserving attention.
Each time we open a book, watch a movie, or have a conversation about ideas – that’s when the best ideas come flying into our consciousness like a bird coming in an open window. Moments we never expected can be missed, lost, or fly out that window so fast if we aren’t conscious of the value we missed capturing. I’ve found I catch more when I’m less in a hurry to end a conversation or when I let my mind wander to a dozen other multi-tasking opportunities …
Singularity of attention and intention are potent allies. Without them, we miss the point, and we miss the chance to make gripping ideas into unexpected outcomes.
Circumstances change – and every time. We experience surprise, in part because it is unexpected.
We also need to ask ourselves, why we didn’t see that change coming?
In most things within human control, we can argue that we ought to have seen it coming. It’s not so much about the obvious or expected consequences, as it is the unexpected ones. Unforeseen ones.
Three surprise callers last week – from an old client, an old friend, and a reader I’ve never met – each completely unexpected, I didn’t see them coming. So glad they did …
Reader feedback:
To paraphrase a quote “the man who asks may suffer for an hour, the man who doesn’t ask may suffer forever”. LH, Lethbridge, AB
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