As my morning batch of email brought me the typical batch of news about everything that is wrong with the world, with the quarantines, with governments, with work and with life... I found myself thinking back fondly to one of the bright spots in my otherwise miserable — but thankfully short — "career" in Korporate Amerika.
Good fortune?
One of my managers was a fellow named Tom who was considered somewhat of a "maverick" and "problem child" because he often would ignore the generally accepted Corporate Culture and so things his own way... and yet, it was hard for Top Management to fault the guy because he was ultimately immensely popular and effective in meeting and exceeding his objectives.
One of the things I learned from Tom is that pretty much any problem can be put right, and the best approach to life is to not focus on or get angry about things that are negative or have gone wrong.
Specifically, he had a very "open door" policy when it came to handling people's (inevitable) mistakes and shortcomings.
Whenever someone did something wrong, or missed a deadline, or sent the wrong thing somewhere... AS LONG AS you could show up with a follow-up to your screw-up that explained how you had ADDRESSED or RESOLVED the problem, he would never take disciplinary action. Or be mad about it. Or yell at you.
As I sit here in "The Age of Covid," I think about Tom and his approach to life.
Specifically, I think about how many people he taught "How NOT to be helpless, in the face of setbacks and adversity."
If quarantines and "stay-at-home orders" are preventing us from doing something, that doesn't mean the world just ended, it simply means we get to adjust and adapt and do something else.
Whereas it definitely would not be my first choice to be cooped up in the house (under current "orders," till May 4th), it really doesn't mean I am suddenly helpless.
I'll be the first to admit that I had moments of "Waaah... poor me!" in the early going, but that has passed and instead...
- I am giving far more time to my writing.
- I am working on my art.
- I am getting overdue home improvement projects done.
- I will be ahead on my business bookkeeping for 2020, not behind.
- I rediscovered my fondness for stamp collecting.
- The filing boxes in my closet will finally be sorted and dealt with.
- A box of old family photos will be sorted, scanned and shared with my family.
- All my web sites and blogs are getting updates and facelifts.
- I am FINALLY getting all my "odd bits" listed for sale on eBay.
I read and hear a lot from people talking about what "has been taken away" from them.
Maybe some things have been "taken away," but to what degree does it serve us to get mired down in what we don't have — and is outside our control, besides — rather than simply acknowledge that there are some things we don't have/can't do... and then put our energies into what we can do?
And so, I'm going back to focusing on my list of what I can do, here in "The Age of Covid-19." I hope others find the inspiration to do the same!
Thanks for reading, and stay healthy!
How about YOU? Are you working on things at home "you've been meaning to" get around to, for a long time? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 20200411 11:56 PDT
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