Yesterday I wrote about reaching a milestone. One hundred posts in one hundred days.
Today I’m writing about another “hundred”. The idea of feeling “one hundred percent”.
This morning I woke up not feeling one hundred percent. My two daughters have had bad coughs the last few weeks and while their doctor said all looked and sounded clear, apparently I’ve been coughed on enough to develop one myself :). All somewhat kidding aside, I woke this morning feeling a scratching in my throat that led me to realize that either this would be a passing feeling or something that would lead me down the road to being sick. While I hope it is the former, it was clear to me this morning that something wasn’t quite right.
As we age, and gain experience both in life, and the work that we do, we become more able to determine when things aren’t right, and when something is a bit “off”. In both our personal and professional lives, those instances often give us pause. We might ask, “What do I need to do differently to right the ship?” or “What might have happened that put me in this imbalance?”
While the answers to those questions, and therefore the “fixes” to our problems are worthy, what is even more valuable is the self-recognition that something is wrong, and the ability to consider key questions that will (hopefully) lead us down the path towards improvement.
The best leaders and learners (and I’ve got a long way to go here), become so attuned to themselves, as well as the world around them, that they immediately know when something is off, and then proceed to ask the right questions to figure out what happened, why, and where to go next.
This is a valuable skill, and one that I am working hard to develop. I often recognize when things are off, but can still get stymied by that fact, and take too long, or, on the flip side, move too fast, to try and rebalance. Not only is it about awareness of something being “off”, but also the necessary awareness of what is happening around us; almost an imbalance empathy, if you will.
As I finish this post later in the day, I’m still feeling that scratching in my throat, and while I’m not feeling too bad, the fact that I’m not feeling totally perfect is on my mind. I’ll be sure this time to also consider what is happening around me, so that my decisions to take care of myself, and to monitor my balance don’t, in turn, throw someone, or something, else off in the process.