How do you deal with the unexpected?
When I was driving back and forth from the office every day, I often listened to audio books, podcasts or a rejuvenating playlist on Amazon Music during my 45 minute commute down I-10 between New Berlin and San Antonio. One summer afternoon, I was listening to some up-beat music as I traversed the overpass from Loop 410 onto I-10. I took in the beautiful skyline of downtown San Antonio, my head bopping back and forth to the beat of the music, as I settled into becoming one with the roadway that would be my comrade for the next 40 minutes.
And then it happened.
A shopping cart. In the middle of I-10. In afternoon traffic. 80 miles-per-hour traffic.
And it wasn’t on the side of the road. It was in the middle lane of a divided highway. On a slope. That means somebody had to push it onto I-10 and abandon it…probably when they realized they couldn’t get it over the solid concrete barrier in the middle of the 10 lanes.
So here’s this shopping cart, meandering its way to the shoulder of I-10, with only gravity to expedite its progress.
And it wasn’t one of those plastic it-would-be-cool-to-see-an-18-wheeler-smash-that-thing-to-bits shopping cart. It was an old-school, solid metal, oy-that’s-gonna-hurt shopping carts.
As the kerfuffle of my fellow travelers realizing, “Holy ****! There’s a shopping cart in the middle of the road!” created a blitz of taillights darting around the obstacle, one driver seemed undaunted.
Or unaware.
It happened in my blind spot, so I didn’t see it. And I chose to keep my eyes focused ahead rather than drive looking in my rear-view-mirror while moving 80 miles-per-hour down I-10 as I crested a hill known for congestion on the other side.
But I do recall the smell. And the screech.
Nothing quite convey’s, “Holy ****!” like a massive Cadillac Escalade locking up all four tires at 80-miles-per-hour.
It was expensive.
And it was avoidable.
And it’s a reminder for me that when I choose to divert my focus and attention away from the direction I’m headed…when I choose into distraction…when I impulsively deal with things now rather than create a safe environment and deal with them there…that those behaviors create an opportunity for a strange encounter of the shopping cart kind. Expensive. And avoidable.
Where do you create opportunities for powerless, inanimate objects to inject havoc into your life, your family, your business? To drain resources, and impede your progress?
Do you want to change that?
