Beginner's Mind... Issue 3.21.2025
Fernando Lopez
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER AND OPERATIONS | GLOBAL LEADER specializing in forward-thinking Finance, Operations and leading People to transform into excellence. Building companies to thrive even through stormy weather.
Last Sunday I had an experience at home that I will never forget.
As in many cases everything started with a good intention. I wanted to surprise my wife and clean up the grout of the kitchen floor. By accident (and ignorance) I inhaled toxic fumes from the combination of ammonia and chlorine!
A chloramine gas! In other words a very toxic gas, which creates strong coughing, nausea, watery eyes and nose, shortness of breath, irritation to the throat, it can result in pneumonia and fluid in the lungs
Yes, what I was thinking?
It took me three days to almost be normal however, my reflection went above the experience of the lesson learned.
What do we do when we are in the middle of a situation where we get to experience the consequences -and the pain- of our own actions and from there we realized that we need to swallow the bitter pill and get the punch in the face!
And on top of it, we still need to deliver in our obligations in, jobs, business, home, etc.?
One of the major challenges is to keep doing what you get to do regardless of how you feel!
Your senses could be saying one thing but your mind is the one running the show and is the one calling the shots regardless of how you feel, or just giving up.
In any rate, the practice of overcome feelings and emotions using awareness is really heavy lifting stuff.
My intention today is to invite you and think how do you train yourself to keep your cool regardless of how you feel and still deliver like a champ!
Think about it!
Senior Engineer - Pratt & Whitney
14 分钟前I think your experience here sheds some light on some other habits that can help us all in the long run:?Risk Assessments, Tactical Pauses, and Long-term Mindsets. When preparing to execute a task, it’s always helpful to conduct a risk assessment, especially when dealing with known toxins. Tactical Pauses: A tactical pause allows us to take some time to re-evaluate the differences between our prior expectations and the current situation. When you started exhibiting some of the symptoms you noted, it would have been a great time to pause and determine what you may have missed when starting the task. It sounds like you completed the task while pushing through the negative effects of inhaling this gas, but you didn’t just deliver clean grout, you also delivered an incapacitated husband for 3-days. That’s 3 days of worries about your health and well-being. More aggressive poisoning could have resulted in a trip to the hospital. Worst-case scenario, this aggressive push to complete this short-term goal would have come at the cost of not being there to fulfill greater long-term goals. Chasing a carrot on a short stick can be appealing, but we should not lose sight of the road and where we’re going in the long-term. Think about it!