FRIDAY’S LESSON OF THE WEEK

My lesson for the week revolves around patience. I grew up hearing that patience is a virtue, but as a kid that had a hard time focusing my attention, patience was not something that I was able to practice. As the years went on, I slowly started to develop the virtue, but It was not anything that I truly felt I had control over until I started being mindful in all I was doing. 

This morning this virtue smacked me in the face once again. I woke up later than I normally do and already felt rushed, after a chamber meeting my wife and I were heading to run a very quick errand, that quick errand turned into a location change that no longer made it a quick errand, so I was annoyed. My wife asked if I still wanted to go and I said yes, because we do almost all our errands together ??.  However, I really did not want to go because I had work to do, and it showed. As I ran through the store, my wife stopped trying to keep up with me. Not finding any of the three things we were looking for, and the thought of going to another store really started to drive my anxiety about my time. As we leave the store my wife spots a row of backup mulch pallets and it is a good sale, we load up ten bags and head inside. Now we get to stand in line for 5 minutes, all I’m thinking about is that I could be home working. As we stand in line and my wife is next to me, and not in the happiest of moods, I start to realize I have not been the nicest this morning.

And then it happened, we got to the self check-out line and proceeded to scan the 10 bags of mulch that was just supposed to be a quick trip for a can of paint. An older gentleman that I have seen at this store before, helped us scan the 10 bags and offered a good discount on three of the bags that were ripped. As he was trying to help, he kept adding bags instead of subtracting them, starting over to then have the exact same thing happen again. I felt like I was being pranked. This is where I was hit in the face with my lesson for the week in patience. Time spent at the register ended up being almost 10 minutes and ended up with me instructing him on what to do. He is a very competent person who has always helped me, and I have never had an issue. This time maybe he was just nervous, but everything got confused. Had I not had the self-awareness to realize the head space I was in the end of this could have had a much different outcome. 

As I drove home reflecting on my whole morning, I realize I should have just said no when my wife asked, then none of this would have happened. However, I am grateful I was able to get present in the moment and get over myself, being able to learn something for the situation. As I journal and look to set new goals everyday/week for myself, self-development is always my top priority. This week’s biggest lesson is twofold; continue to work on saying no, and once you make a decision about something – BE IN THE MOMENT. Don’t make someone else’s experience a bad one because of something that is within your control. Being mindful of each choice we make is difficult at times regardless of how long you have been practicing it. Write down who you want to be and use that as a benchmark, that way you’ll be able to recognize behaviors or emotions that don’t hold that benchmark. Be the person you want to be. When you first start this process, you won’t realize these moments until they are over, in-time, you will start to realize it in present time.

LIVE YOUR LIFE WITH PURPOSE

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