The CC - Not Everything has Fallen Apart. Just Something.


Not Everything has Fallen Apart. Just Something.

Because of my pronounced brow, I had to find a specialized cataract surgeon who knew how to work around the quirks of my bone structure. During Friday's surgery I had a chunk of anxiety, dealing with pre-op freezing, the actual incision, then my post-op high blood pressure. I was so relieved when I finally got my Uber home.

By Sunday, I was feeling elated to have the surgery behind me. My eye was healing well. Driving out of the city in the bright sun, window open, music on, I inadvertently reached up and rubbed my eye. Suddenly, everything went white.

Shock hit first. Then shame. I’d been warned again and again, not to touch the repaired eye.

“Stupid, stupid”, I yelled, slamming the steering wheel.

I turned around and carefully made it back home; crushed by my own foolishness. “What damage had I caused? What plans do I cancel?”

There are lots of days I live with some version of worry over named or unnamed fears. Anxiety is a common problem, but I never realized that it’s a cause of brain deterioration. It reduces mental sharpness, memory clarity, and creates a higher risk for illness. That’s a concern in families like mine with a history of dementia.

A friend, whom I’m confiding in, has far more health concerns than me. He struggles with his own anxieties. His version shows up every Monday morning as the work week begins, even though he’s retired.

He says, “I never used to worry about what to do with my time. As Ops Manager there was more construction needed than time allowed, so decisions were made quickly over what to prioritize.

“So how do you move out of your Monday anxiety?” I asked.

”I guess you could say I am now in deconstruction. That I’m worth more than my performance.”

“Deconstruction?”

“Yeah, I’m working through my sense of worth-ness. I’m trying to dismantle the lifetime of worth based on my achievements. That's not where my value comes from anymore.”

As I squint through my one good eye, to write this anxiety is still clawing at me. But I’m trying to break free. Here’s my takeaways:

  • Anxiety steals presence. It robs peace. It churns in my gut, and worst -- it distracts me from the present moment. Worry loves the shadows.
  • Can I name what’s disturbing my soul? Maybe I’ll say it out loud. Maybe I’ll write it down in this post: With a patch on my eye, I’m anxious for the surgery – probably tomorrow. I’m anxious about the recovery time, and the projects I'll have to delay.
  • What if I was not as time-bound? So scheduled? What would it be like to live “timeless”?
  • I will take these small steps towards what deconstruction means to me:
    • A small step at least today, is to be at peace with doing nothing.
    • Could my “being” be just as important to me, as my “doing”? Can I catch a spark from my granddaughter's timeless soul to ignite my time-bound “doing”?
    • Not everything has fallen apart…Just something in my eye.

I would love to connect with you on LinkedIn or Facebook

See you next week,

Grayson

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Grayson Bain

Join us if you're yearning for business insights peppered with adventure, humanity, and a dash of humility. It’s more than success; it’s about significance.

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