Editor's Focus: Aug. 1998

Strange question, isn’t it? Who in their right mind would consciously seek out an opportunity to make themselves unhappy?

We do it, though, but we don’t even know it. We do it every time we lose our perspective and forget about the things that really matter in life and to us.

Keeping things in proper perspective is something I’ve always prided myself on because, in the grand scheme of things, I think I have a pretty good life, free of any troubles of consequence.

But that doesn’t stop me from wondering, “Why me?” at certain times or feeling that things will never improve when I find myself especially challenged. I would imagine that more than a couple contractors also find themselves thinking the same thoughts during the hectic times in the middle of the season when the crews are running, problems are occurring and solutions are missing.

This is when it seems there’s always something to do that has to be done ‘now’ and that only you can do it. It can be enough to make a person crazy, or at least less pleasant than they need to be.

The last few days before my writing this have been this way, and I haven’t handled it particularly well. One of my favorite remedies for these times is just to get out of the office for a little bit, go for a walk and restore my sanity before I say something I’ll regret or do something I can’t fix.

Yesterday, I took one of those walks at a particularly harried point in the afternoon, and it was probably my most productive time of the entire day. Along the way, I encountered two scenes that reminded me how insignificant my problems at the time really were: a person in dirty clothes sleeping on a park bench and an ambulance with lights flashing and sirens blaring as it raced toward a nearby hospital.

Regardless of how upsetting my problems may have seemed in my own little world, I was reminded then that I was not lying in the back of an ambulance requiring emergency medical attention and I knew that I was going to sleep comfortably at home at the end of the day. The problems that I was momentarily escaping were still there when I returned to the office, but then I saw them for what they really were, and appreciated what they weren’t.

Now I’m not so naïve or idealistic to think that I will never again lose my perspective or ability to discern real problems from minor inconveniences in life. That’s a trap I know I’ll be ensnared within again at some point, but I bet we all can do a better job of delaying how long it takes until that happens.