“When you do the common things in an uncommon way, you’ll command the attention of the world.” George Washington Carver,
A friend of mine sent me this quote this week and I absolutely love it. This week has been my busiest of 2016 at work which hasn’t allowed much time to blog or even do anything about my niggling elbow, but it has been good. I have loved trying to apply some freshly learnt skills from a physio course I attended last weekend and as a result I realised the importance of refreshing skills and knowledge and exposing oneself to new ideas and approaches. This is twofold- one, it keeps us abreast of latest developments and changes in our profession and two, it is mentally stimulating and refreshing, allowing us to give a new approach to a common problem in a new seemingly uncommon way.
We so often become accustomed to the usual mundane day to day life of training, going to work, cooking, washing, driving, cleaning etc., that we can get caught in a ‘rut’ At the beginning of the year I found myself struggling to be motivated to work, finding it unstimulating and unfulfilling. I wasn’t doing myself or my patients any justice. I did this course to get much needed points, but it was worth so much more than points. I have a renewed energy to treat, I managed a very full week without collapsing in a heap and actually feel energised and excited to treat my clients and journey their progress.
I know I am incredibly blessed to get to do a job that I love and get paid for it, although I am still moulding and shaping my career in a slightly different direction to try and accommodate various skills, passions and dreams.
I believe every single person regardless of race, class or socioeconomic status has a unique make up with different skills, talents and passions. Even in the day to day everyday task, we have a choice as to how we approach the task, how we respond and the way we interact with the people that surround us.
Life can be ‘boring’ (I prefer the word mundane) at times, although whilst going back in some of my journals I came across a quote I once said ‘boredom is a luxury we cannot afford’ In South Africa that is particularly relevant. We are surrounded by the unemployed, uneducated, sick, homeless and broken people amidst a political crisis and drought. There is so much we can do and as clichéd as this sounds, if we each do our part, we really can make the world a better place.
If we feed into boredom, mediocrity, frustration, doom and gloom, our lives will look like that.
I watched a movie the other day and in the movie they quite effectively summed up our world. It is in a state of chaos, we have the highest rate of obesity as well as starvation- how ironic? The world looks all doom and gloom, is the end coming? The little girl in the movie reminded her dad of a story her always told her about two wolves- the wolves were always fighting, one is darkness and despair the other is light and hope. Which one wins? The answer is, whichever one you feed. If we feed into boredom, mediocrity, frustration, doom and gloom, our lives will look like that. Which wolf will you feed?
When I find myself getting bored or frustrated at a seemingly lack of fulfilling work or making any significant change to the world around me, I need to sit back and re prioritise, refresh and find a new way to approach the common things in an uncommon way.