What was I thinking... I Wasn't!

“Babe, I could never do that…”

Also interpreted as “why would you even think about such an idea.”

or

“Don’t waste my time with a dumb idea like that!”

Thinking back, I now realize why my wife looked at me with frustration after my response to her solicited advice.

Here’s how the story goes… A few months back I was struggling with my “in town” morning routine. Here’s what my schedule looked like:

5:30am: Wake up and workout (15 minute high intensity)

5:50am: Shower and get ready

6:15am: Leave home/ have personal time in car

7:00am: Get to work and/or write

The schedule worked great for a year. But I had a very small margin for error during my morning routine. In fact, the small margin was causing me to begin every day in rush mode, and this was affecting the rest of my day negatively.

“I have to leave the house by 6:15am or I’ll hit traffic and that throws everything off.”

And leaving the house at 6:15 am  was the one thing I couldn’t control. At least that’s what I had convinced myself of.

As I was lamenting over my lack of control with the morning schedule, my wife said “why don’t you work from home in the morning?”

“Babe, I could never do that…” (spoken with a tone of disgust for even throwing out the idea). I remember saying something else like, “You obviously don’t understand.”

Word to the wise -- This is not the right way to respond to creative feedback, especially to your wife. Moving on.

I spouted off reason after reason why there was nothing I could do to change my schedule.

“It just won’t work -- don’t you realize I would’ve already done that if I could?”

Being stubborn I wrote off her advice. However, I remember thinking, "I wish I could do that." I really did. I wanted a fresh perspective, but when it hit me in the face, I couldn’t see it.

Fast forward to now. After six months, I finally decided to give it a try. I’m a few days in and the difference is amazing. I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner. I sure wish someone would have suggested it earlier (pretend there is a smiley face here depicting my sarcasm)!

Too often we get stuck in a way of thinking or doing that just doesn’t make sense. We hate it and want to change it, but our list of reasons why nothing can change seems too long. We go to that list before ever truly evaluating the other side of the coin.

We fail to ask ourselves the question, “what if?”  Or we fail to listen to the advice those we’ve asked are giving us.

Either way, why not list all of the reasons why we could change? Why the advice would work. Then see where you net out. This is only a slight shift in perspective, but a great exercise if you find yourself in a box that you can’t escape.

P.S. If you’re like me, you should listen to your wife or significant other!