Gosh, I wish I could take out the garbage…
I am mending from a rough two weeks with a back ailment. For most of my life I have been fortunate to have avoided any major health issues, and as important, pain. Well, during that time I have been mostly horizontal (when not floating in the pool, the place of greatest relief), on bunches of pain meds, and overall a pretty useless lump of human flesh. I have experienced more pain during this time than I have ever had cumulatively prior to this experience. As I lay flat on my back, feeling sorry for myself and watching Kathy (she is a saint) do everything around the house as well as take care of me, I began to feel jealous that I couldn’t do any of the mundane tasks that I normally don’t even think about. I even found myself wishing I could take out the garbage again.
This episode has made me realize how much I take for granted. To have my mobility taken away (fortunately just temporarily) brought this into focus. Generally I feel in control of the activities in my world -from day to day tasks all the way to long term planning and scheduling, all under the assumption that what I consider normal stays true. It is when this normal is interrupted that the lack of control comes into focus.
I try to practice gratitude for all of the good things in my life, which are many. These past two weeks my awareness of what those good things are has expanded exponentially.
One of the topics I often address when working with business leaders is to be aware and conscious of the things that work in our businesses, not just the things that don’t, one of the biggest lessons I learned after leaving my business. I often get involved with helping people solve problems, as we all have issues which get our attention, no matter how good a business we run. It is when helping others solve their business issues and realizing in our company we already solved a specific issue and moved on, that I came to the realization that we all tend to take for granted all the things that work and give the majority of our energy to the things that don’t. Being more conscious and aware of the things that work in our world builds confidence, appreciation, gratitude, and the opportunity to continually improve the things that work as well as concentrating on the things that don’t.
So, my experiences over the last two weeks have further expanded my awareness of the things I have been taking for granted. I am very fortunate that the lesson was driven by a temporary condition and not a permanent one. I am much more sensitive to my surroundings and things that work in my life, with hope that this newfound appreciation and gratitude doesn’t wear off.
What I am reading:
Work: Making Work Visible – Dominica Degrandis – Amazon Link
Pleasure: Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow – Amazon Link