Photo by Denise Drury
Recently I was reminded that taking the time to look at a situation with patience and perspective makes a difference. I got a voicemail from a customer who needed the wiring to her water pump repaired. I’m an electrical contractor and usually have lots of jobs on the go, so I do service jobs when I get a chance. It had snowed a lot recently and she lived in a cabin on the far side of the local lake. My initial thought (the little me) was to decline the job as it was inconvenient and we were already busy. I called her back and she told me how they have been without water for 10 days and really needed help. So I told her I would come and do my best to get it fixed.
I went there and fixed the wiring the first time, but only to have the pump fail after 10 hours. She called a day later and explained that the plumbers had to replace the pump, but now the temporary wiring the plumbers did when they replaced the pump was failing. So I went there again to reconfigure the pump voltage and redo the wiring. While there I was starting to feel stressed about time. I had certain jobs scheduled and this was taking me off track.
Seeing Results
Here is the cool part of the story. Just as I was noticing my own stress I was walking into the cabin to get to the electrical panel. I noticed a picture of Four Sadhus (evolved Yogi) in India sitting, smiling, with their faces painted. They were the same Yogi from a documentary I had watched on Netflix (Yoga the Architecture of Peace) months earlier. I remembered from the documentary how it showed these Yogi just chilling out doing yoga pretty much all day every day, sitting and just being. Thinking of patience and perspective it reminded me how at peace with time they must be, having presence.
After borrowing some principals of the Yogi in the picture I was able to see the time crunch was all in my head and see that perspective makes a difference. I could easily call people and shift my schedule or whatever. Those Yogi were at peace and I became at peace with time myself. Suddenly realizing and noticing the sun was shining, the snow was quickly melting, and the birds were all happily chirping away. Interestingly I am getting a bunch of really good referrals from the plumbing contractor on the job, as well. Kind of cool how things work out!
In Perspective
My take away is that by taking a moment to think allowed me to draw on some inspiration and reminded me to have patience and perspective
- helping people in need is a good thing to do if and when you can.
- two kinds of time; scheduling time and psychological time.
- Awareness of stress is a chance for a shift in perspective. If you’re feeling stressed think of the Yogi and just chill , they are not stressed about time.
- Remember there is no Wolf at the door. Nothing is that big of a deal!
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