Stoplights

Have you ever experienced being in the middle of something, at the verge of getting it done when either an alert goes off, a network interruption or the dreaded “software update”? Did you “see red”? Do you feel “Oh no! Why me?!”

I experienced all of it and got to the point of, “this cannot get any worse…”. Of course, true to form, Murphy’s law or whatever you want to call it, it got worse.

Over time of course as I reflected, I began to realize that maybe I was missing something. I’ve always enjoyed speed and the adrenaline. Contests in school and sports. As I grew up, speeding motorcycles and fast cars. Professionally, Crisis Management and Hyper Support — the adrenaline kept pumping and pushing me ahead.

My life had only two colors — Green and if anything slowed me down, Red. I was missing — Amber.

Armed with the realization of this new color, I began to more appreciate the little pauses — alerts, electricity, network, software. I started to look at it as a form of learning and development and appreciated the wisdom in waiting. Over time, I rolled easier with the punches and sidestepped the emotions that follow. Eventually, I managed to get to the point of play-pause-play. I must admit it’s still not easy, requires practice and a conscious effort to constantly try to learn. There is a lot more to benefit from understanding how to maximize the pause.

So, what do you think? What’s your stoplight moment?

Let me know in the comments below.