Why you should never go into your garage without your umbrella! (Part 2)
A few days after returning from Christmas in Tennessee, Kathy stood in her cold garage talking to her neighbor Walt about where he was going to build some shelves for her over the weekend. After taking some measurements, Walt looked down at Kathy's splinted right thumb and said, "I heard you got your thumb stuck in the car trunk?" Kathy grimaced as she retold the story. (See below if you missed last week's issue.)
Standing in the exact place where the panic-laden incident took place, Walt pointed to a long, maroon umbrella hanging on a large wall hook and said, "Why didn't you just pick up the umbrella and hit the garage door opener button immediately?"
In shock, Kathy starred at the umbrella which was obviously within easy reach. Her mind flashed back to the excruciating 10 minutes of her life where she attempted to get the garage door open and find someone to help her. In disbelief she thought, "It couldn't have been that easy! If only I had looked right in front of my face, picked up the umbrella and used it to hit the release button, the garage door could have been open in less than 60 seconds!"
Lenny has observed humans and noticed that often in life people get so stuck and focused on their pain that they over look the way to get out of it. People have a tendency to make things much more difficult than necessary. Many times our "relief umbrella" is right in front of our face and still, we fail to see it. Pain always signals a problem - it is our body's attempt to get our attention and help us find relief. Unfortunately, if we allow the focus to remain on the pain and not the solution to the cause of the pain, the pain ends up being more destructive than helpful.
Lenny's Challenge: Take 60 seconds and ask yourself, "Am I currently stuck in a painful situation? Am I focused on the pain, or on the solution to the cause of the pain? Have I overlooked a "relief umbrella" that is right in front of me?" What is blocking you from seeing the obvious?
Focusing your attention on the pain instead of the solution is 100% your choice! Shed or You're Dead (TM)!