I was absolutely stressed out yesterday. You know--when emotion overcomes you, when people have violated your expectations, when everyone wants a piece of you, when problems are raging out of control like forest fires, and when there just doesn't seem to be any relief in sight. Such a day is not only emotionally draining, but seems to push one to flip the “autopilot” switch. We end up focusing more on task completion in those days than we do on what’s happening in the moment. In a sense, we lose our conscious rationality.
In the midst of all this, someone came into my office and asked me to explain the complexities of a task they were assigned to complete. I explained the process, and they didn’t get it. I explained the task again, and they still didn’t get it. By then, I was pretty much out of patience, and I barely caught an awareness of the tone of my voice as I explained the task a third time. The message in my tone was “Are you just an idiot, or what?” Once I heard that message, I was able to take a breath and change how I was speaking. The challenge to notice what we are doing while we are doing it is enormous. To hold REAL conversations, we must be aware—be conscious of what we are saying and doing. When we are unconsciously unconscious, we miss the opportunity to create what we really want. What we do or don’t do really does create exactly what we get!
