I missed my flight today, and all I could think about was "Whose fault is this?" It's like the first days at my previous job, where, drunk in behavioral analysis, I made a remark about starting every day by asking "Who should we blame today?" My boss loved it so much that he'd often retell the remark to our clients. The lesson is: we all have problems we want to avoid.
I don't actually start my day with that question. That remark was inspired by an impulsive tweet. One odd morning, without thinking, I typed, "Alright. Who are we trying to impress today?". This is why Twitter works well as a micronotebook, you see, because you can just type / write without thinking and ponder over it later.
My point is: we need better questions. By asking something you don't normally hear, you exercise your self-awareness and critical thinking skills, prerequisites to personal growth. The process of trying to answer the question is valuable, of course, but the process of coming up with the question also shouldn't be overlooked. My impulsive tweet made me realize the goal of my day is to make everyone look up to me. It's not a matter of whether or why I want to impress others, it's become so ingrained that it's just a question of whom. It's okay. That's just who I am. I embrace it and sometimes would enter a room thinking "Who here do I want to impress the most?" It's just a matter of whom.
In today's case, I was set on blaming the hotel I was staying at. The receptionist had chosen the very last moment to let me know of some additional charges. I had missed my flight by only a couple of minutes, so if the hotel had dealt with this earlier, I probably would have caught my flight. Of course, I should have planned better than to arrive in the nick of time like that. Could've waken up earlier. Took the taxi instead of the subway. Etc. But we all have problems we want to avoid dealing with. It's just a matter of which.
Note: For more on problem avoidance through disassociation, see Somebody Else's Problem.
I don't actually start my day with that question. That remark was inspired by an impulsive tweet. One odd morning, without thinking, I typed, "Alright. Who are we trying to impress today?". This is why Twitter works well as a micronotebook, you see, because you can just type / write without thinking and ponder over it later.
My point is: we need better questions. By asking something you don't normally hear, you exercise your self-awareness and critical thinking skills, prerequisites to personal growth. The process of trying to answer the question is valuable, of course, but the process of coming up with the question also shouldn't be overlooked. My impulsive tweet made me realize the goal of my day is to make everyone look up to me. It's not a matter of whether or why I want to impress others, it's become so ingrained that it's just a question of whom. It's okay. That's just who I am. I embrace it and sometimes would enter a room thinking "Who here do I want to impress the most?" It's just a matter of whom.
In today's case, I was set on blaming the hotel I was staying at. The receptionist had chosen the very last moment to let me know of some additional charges. I had missed my flight by only a couple of minutes, so if the hotel had dealt with this earlier, I probably would have caught my flight. Of course, I should have planned better than to arrive in the nick of time like that. Could've waken up earlier. Took the taxi instead of the subway. Etc. But we all have problems we want to avoid dealing with. It's just a matter of which.
Note: For more on problem avoidance through disassociation, see Somebody Else's Problem.