Have you ever been completely focused in on an ambition? Maybe your whole world was consumed with accomplishing a singular goal. Each day and every sleepless night was attuned to crossing off this pinnacle in an otherwise normal life.
Then, without any preamble, your plans are upended. Your snatched out of your slumber and awaken to some bad news. The dream you built for yourself turns out to be fool’s gold. Unfortunately, this tunnel vision has already cost you some good years and only provided a meager, unsatisfying harvest.
Yesterday at work, I was reminded about those times in my life, when a fire alarm went off at an in opportune time. My colleagues and I were interrupted and told to march down three flights of stairs and out into the bitter cold. I witnessed a mom carrying an infant down the stairwell and I was filled with pity. No one thought the fire alarm was legitimate. It was clear it was a false alarm, but no matter, we all stopped our plans and filed outside like we first learned in school years ago.
When the inevitable “all clear” came through, the mama was able to ride back up on the elevator with her child in tow. The rest of us followed suit and within minutes we were back humming through our day but the interruption lingered. A subtle confusion clung to the room and it took awhile for everyone to revert back to their prior tasks.
Initially, I was annoyed by the alarm but then I noticed it made me tune into the people surrounding me. Instead of being completely locked into my own objectives for the day, this disruption broadened my vision and I was actually more efficient the rest of the afternoon. Seeing someone else being inconvenienced and accepting it with aplomb, forced a gut check.
True, it was a small false alarm but it symbolized an ability to block out others for my own ambitions. I remembered this was a path to destruction in the past and I was grateful for a gentle shake up in my day.
Maybe a little chaos is good?
Especially if it brings us out of the tunnel and into the world.
K