This evening I watched my cat trying to get through my bedroom door by trying to bend herself around the filing cabinet. Let me explain briefly…
One of my wall outlets isn’t working so I pulled all the furniture away from the wall to allow the electrician to get to it. I have a filing cabinet by the door that really can’t go anywhere else so I just pulled it forward. Thinking my cat could go around the back of it, I cracked the door to prepare for my winter’s nap. (This is necessary to keep the outside light from entering my much preferred dark bedroom.) But first I tested it out to see if she would go around. Well, it worked going one way. She came in and went behind the cabinet but still wanted to leave in front of it so she tried to bend herself through the slit between the cabinet and the door. But doing that caused the door to pin her in between the door and the cabinet. So she would back out and proceed to go behind the cabinet again, and again, trying to get through the opening the same way each time. This happened probably five times. She would mix it up by trying to sneak up on the door and then she would try to rush it, maybe thinking if she pounced on it, it would cooperate! I know, it sounds like torture, but it only lasted a minute or two and it was so funny, I couldn’t stop laughing! She couldn’t figure out how to go back the way she came!
So after I helped her by pointing her in the right direction, stopped crying from laughter, and sat down to wipe the tears away, I realized we all do this at times.
We make a decision and try to go straight for a goal or a project, not realizing that we might have to back up, even turn around, to regroup occasionally. We try to squeeze through an opening, not realizing that if we tried a different approach, we could get the same results with less anxiety and less bending of ourselves to fit whatever mold we are trying to squeeze into.
So the next time you notice you are depleted from a task that just doesn’t seem to want to be easy, ask yourself if you need to try a different approach. You might be trying to tackle the issue with the same pattern you use on the tasks you are familiar with. Back up and take a look at where you came from. Maybe there’s an easier way to get through the door to the other side?
Oh, and my cat only needed to be shown twice what to do. Not bad for 14. Who says you can’t teach an old dog….or cat…..new tricks?
Vanderslice Coaching 