Tiny Tinkering

“What you’ve been doing doesn’t work anymore.” – Brian Gottfredson

Tiny Tinkering

Eye opening!  I was doing what I’ve always done; yet, I suddenly wasn’t getting the same positive result!  Results don’t lie! I could see I had wrong results so change was needed. 

Have you ever gotten undesirable results without understanding why? Getting the wrong result without being able to see the cause can make a person crazy, frustrated and just plain confused.  

That’s what I was experiencing.  So, I sat face to face with my friend Brian hoping to be able to see through his eyes.  It was important since I tend to be blind, when it comes to personal challenges, from time to time.  I was hoping that a view through Brian’s eyes would provide me with the remedy I was seeking.

I wanted my meeting with Brian to open a view into what was causing my big problem. Yet, Brian unexpectedly illuminated the small and applied a most eye opening principle called “Tiny Tinkering.”

“Here’s the thing.” Brian said.  “You don’t need to make big changes.  You just need to make some small changes to get a big result!”

 Relief flooded my soul.  “I can deal with small!” I said to myself.

And, since I only needed to do some tiny tinkering, I gladly and quickly tinkered.

The results were immediate!  All of a sudden the world seemed to shift back to “normal,” understandable, the way it should be!  The big results from tiny tinkering were much more than I even dared dream.

Dream big?  Yes!

Tinker the tiny way?  Oh, yeah!

The easier the better and tinkering in the tiny way is easy and very effective.  Here are four tiny steps that have worked for me.

Take a tiny moment to borrow someone else’s eyes to give you a clear view of the problem you’re facing. Identify one or two tiny changes you can easily make. Take tiny steps to implement the tiny changes.  Enjoy big results!

Do want big results with eye opening moments?  Then, tiny tinker away to fulfill your big dreams!

Blacklist

My To-Do List

Blacklist

I was looking at my computer screen on Monday morning.  My eyes were scanning my weekly calendar as well as everything on my To-Do List.  As I was doing so, my fingers danced across the keyboard to make a place for each item on the calendar.  My mind was racing through the week.  As it did so I had a revelation!

I was so intent with getting every thing done, getting each task finished that I could hardly wait for the week to be over!  The thought had nothing to do with difficulties or distaste.  It had to do with an insatiable need to get things completed.  That’s when it hit me!

I was no longer living my life!  I had become a task-completing machine.  My To-Do List, some how, some way, had morphed into a life-sucking Blacklist!

Well, to be honest it isn’t the list itself that had turned into something dark and nefarious.  It was the way I had begun to approach it, my manner of working toward my hoped for accomplishments and the people with whom I associate.  In short I had begun to rush through my life without notice of hardly anything except for the making of another check mark.  So, I began to take notice.

I noticed that there was an opportunity to stop my life from slipping away with little reflection on my part.  So, I decided to begin to take an active part in self-event management by becoming conscious and it has already made a difference.

The other night as I was working, I stopped to sit and talk face to face with two people I was working with.  The three of us talked for a few minutes without looking at our phones, checking messages or considering smart watches!  Can you imagine?  That small moment allowed me to discover how much I had in common with people I’ve been working with for several years, yet had never taken the time to really get to know them.  It created a new and deeper fulfillment from our work together.  Perhaps most importantly, it allowed me to live in the moment without fast-forwarding through the evening.

Are you fast-forwarding through your life as well?  Has your To-Do List become a Blacklist?  Are you constantly looking at a computer screen, smart phone, tablet or smart watch anxiously?  Are you ready to begin to live your life again?

Living for more than fifty years has taught me a few things.  Perhaps the most important thing age has communicated is the fleeting nature of our lives.  None of us live very long.  So, wouldn’t it be a shame for you and me to keep pressing the fast-forward button?

Let’s resolve to get off our own Blacklist!

Living Imperfectly

“It isn’t a perfect game.”  Quinn Snyder

Living Imperfectly

“I told him that we were going to run play for him and if he didn’t shoot the ball I was going to take him out of the game.”  Coach Snyder said.  “It isn’t a perfect game. And, you may not get a better shot, so you have to take the shot when you have it.”

My mind began to drift away, from those words coming through my radio, toward reflection.  I remembered one of the little sayings I repeated to my daughters, time and time again, as they were growing up.

“Life isn’t fair, don’t expect it to be.”  I’d say.

Perhaps I could have changed that to “life isn’t perfect?”  Or,  “Since not one of us is perfect, take the best shot you’re given?”

In today’s world of constant photo shooting and altering toward perfection, that advice seems completely wrong!  Have you ever noticed that most individual and family photos these days never get printed unless the subject(s) feel as if they’re the perfect shot?  Does such a practice perpetuate a myth of “life’s perfection?”

I keep a small, very old, family photo in a frame on a credenza in my family room.  It was taken when I was around six years old.  I love it precisely because is shows my cow licked hair, strangely held arms and my un-centered pants turned toward the right side of my body.  It reminds me that I was once just a goofy kid, filled with hopes of a wonderful future.  I’ve never met a single person that didn’t have such hopes.

                                                                                                

Does a continual belief in and presentation of false perfection destroy hope and dreaming?  Does a belief in living a perfect life destroy a person’s potential and opportunity?  I can remember many times of allowing the fear of possibly not achieving perfection to stop me from testing myself and pursuing opportunity.  Do you have such memories?

I also have a clear memory of living imperfectly.  I’m beginning to embrace and cherish it.  And, now I’ve come to realize that living imperfectly isn’t something to feel regretful of.  The game, life, is imperfect itself.  So, next time an opportunity to fulfill a dream opens in front of you, take your best shot!  After all, you may not get a better shot and any offered shot is much better than taking yourself out of the game!

Activating Love

“You are a giver!” – Gary Christensen

Activating Love

It was very cold outside.  I’d like to say unseasonably cold.  But, the cold was in season.  It was just much colder than usual.  It was so cold that when my phone announced a call coming in, I could hardly answer it.  As my finger touched the cold screen of my phone it was difficult to activate the call!

When the call was active I heard a voice I didn’t recognize.

“The furnace in this house isn’t working!”  He said.  “I thought you would want to know.”

Want to know?  I was filled with relief to know!  I drove over to my friend’s house to check it.  She was out of town and I was watching her home.  As soon as I arrived and walked in, my face felt a blast of cold and the temperature was dropping outside.  The forecast temperature for the night was three degrees.  My spine shivered as I called my friend Gary for help.

Gary was still working when he answered my call.  “Lynn, I’m in Utah County.  I’ll call you when I am on my way home and we can get together.”

I disconnected the call and remembered what Gary once said to me.  “You are a giver!”

In truth, Gary is the giver.  It was a cold winter’s night and he met me at the house late in the evening.  I’m sure he wanted to be at home letting his fireplace toast his toes after a long day’s work.  Yet, here he was, standing in a freezing cold basement running furnace tests in the dark.  I watched him run test after test, check after check.

After he finished his testing he said, “I can’t tell for sure, but I think it is the computer board.  I’ll have to see if I can get one tomorrow.”  Then he got on his knees and shot a photo of the board with his phone.

“It’s amazing how these phones have changed our lives!”  I said.

Gary laughed. “Yes!  This makes it easy for me to get the exact board without mistake.  Oh, I have a couple of space heaters in my truck so we can get the house warmed up so pipes won’t freeze tonight.”

“You’re a giver!”  I said to myself as Gary climbed into his truck to finally head home after I extended his day.  It was colder than usual.  I looked at my phone to check the outside temperature.  It was a chilling three degrees!

It was chilling outside for sure.  But, I could hardly feel the cold.  Gary had shown me the definition of being a giver, so my heart was warm and comforted knowing he had saved thousands of dollars for my absent friend and changed lives, by simply activating love in a cold world!