You know a fussy baby who is not happy in any situation? The kid is just frustrated in general – nothing will make the baby happy. That’s how I feel today. I’m not sure why, though I think it is the lack of good sleep. Probably, I’m working out too much and should relax more*. I bought chips and dip last night** and ate a pint of ice cream on Sunday. Ok, it’s dealing with winter in April. If it was decent on the weekend as opposed to Thursdays … I could probably tolerate it, but even this upcoming weekend; beautiful Friday and snow and rain on Saturday. GAAHHH.
I used to do a lot of races – mostly 5 and 10K’s (I’d also always finish close to the back of the runners … whatever). Anyway, I always watched those getting ready for the race at the starting line and most would have this air of anticipation – excitement I guess, and it was cool to watch, see, and feel. With everything going on at Iowa Specialty Hospitals & Clinics right now, there is this anticipation and desire to get started on the solution. I was talking with some leaders today, and they said everyone was pitching in with ideas and potential solutions as to how to fix the financials. Hmmm, cool.
As we go forward, our natural inclination is to point fingers – blame someone else. Quint used to tell a story about this. He used to go to recovery meetings. His hearing is not great, and unfortunately at one meeting he sat next to someone who had a cold. Quint told us that he missed most of the meeting because what little hearing he has was spent on listening to the guy next to him hack and cough and blow his nose. After the meeting he complained to a friend who also went to the meeting. The friend looked at Quint and said, “You’re the problem. Your focus was on the person next to you and you missed the big picture … you were the problem, not the guy with the cold.” Maybe my problem is my perspective … maybe I need to focus on the big picture.
All of you have the right idea. You’re participating in solutions and coming up with awesome ideas. I need to take a page from your book and appreciate that a. this weather (in the next couple of weeks) will turn absolutely great. Patience is what I need and b. the financial crisis will pass. We’ll need to tweak a couple of things, but together we will prevail; we always do.
*said no-one ever
**I’m throwing them away when I get home