This couple of day’s I have been feeling down, I am opening my own consulting company and of course I want to make it happen in the shortest time possible.
Last week I set ambitious goals of what I should have been doing with my time.
Things took longer than expected, a bit of procrastination added and finally my high school classmates yearly meeting happened and I ended up not working that weekend and several days behind my self-set schedule.
The result, me hammering myself about not working as hard as I think I should.
Staying inside of my head with the internal feeling that someone is after me to make me pay for my bad behavior and closeness and disconnection.
With all that internal crisis, I decided to force myself to go to my daily training to the gym just across the street, who knows maybe it’s even a good way to clear my mind and be more present.
I made it there and no, I just started avoiding people and getting to the irons as if no one else would be around.
Finished my squats, prepare everything for my heavy deadlifts when I heard a loud noise above my head, looked above and for a second, nothing, followed by the ceiling 3 meters to my right opening and giving way to a falling man!
He was apparently painting a wall above the ceiling and misplaced his foot.
He was falling in a standing position with his arms opened, trying to grab from any available place without success. One of the leg press machines was right below, he barely hit it, just enough to turn around and land on his neck.
I was the closest person present and being an experienced oilfield worker have years of first aid courses.
I waited for the debris to end its fall and ran towards the man, he was breathing and moving, I hurried to calm him down and hold him in place securing his neck, right after I pointed at the people gathering around and yell “Call an ambulance right now” as I saw a confirming face I turned back to the worker and continued examining him.
Lots of scratches, pain in the neck and back, otherwise he seemed to be alright. At that point another guy came to help and other people brought an oxygen tank saved for emergencies at the gym.
At that moment, all that was left to do is wait for the ambulance to come. I took a second to look around at the scene.
It was sad, most of the people was standing frozen about 5 meters away with a horror face, except from to persons, first was the owner of the gym, she had and angry face and was blaming the poor worker for being careless and having fell, at some point I had to tell the worker to calm down, as he seemed to be trying to stand up and run away from her.
The second person was a lady that seemed to be a bit more concern and would just keep asking if it was a bad fall. Up until now I can’t understand what she meant with that.
Finally, the ambulance came, immobilized the man and took him to the hospital, from what I know he is doing alright.
As one of my good friends said, be prepared because shit will happen (Guillaume, this one is yours!)
It’s funny to see what our first reactions to stress are, sometimes we freeze, sometimes we blame others, we may even speak nonsense.
And most important, what would it take to be ready? To step out of our heads, be present and aware of our fellows needs and be in service to them?
The lesson for me today is: When I am present, committed and urgent, help comes!
Hi, my name is Carlos
Engineer – Traveler – Self-Improver – Fitness fan
