Listening/Focus

It's been a very rough week, especially at work. The short version is that there was a lot more work than people to do it (which happens a lot around a holiday weekend), and when that happens, some of the less ethical workers take measures to push work off to other people. They don't care who else has to do it as long as it isn't them. There's no reason to go into detail; it's just something that happens, and it's human nature when you're overwhelmed, I suppose. Management gives the people who do it heck when it happens, but by then the damage has already been done. A negative comment on someone else's review next year doesn't do the dumpees any good.

And so I was having anger management issues early this week. My wife pointed out that I'd skipped meditating two mornings in a row because we'd gotten a late start, which I hadn't realized until she said it. We had also gotten less sleep than usual for a couple of nights, and I'm sure that had some effect as well.

By midweek I'd gotten myself back together a bit, back on the meditation track (still not getting enough sleep, though), more focused on what I had to do, and not worrying so much about what everybody else was doing. Things got better. This upcoming week will likely be much worse. Labor Day weekend means more travel (and more accidents) and a maximum number of people out on vacation, but I feel better prepared to face it.

So what does this have to do with listening? For starters, I had to listen to my wife to get me settled back down in the first place. I had to learn to listen to my anger building up inside so I could head it off before reaching the explosion point. Yoga and meditation have both taught me to do a better job in general of paying attention to what's going on inside before it becomes a problem on the outside. I just have to be more consistent about it than I've been, especially this past week.

So let's try it again this upcoming week and see if I can do better.