+JMJ +
What is vital to thriving during this time of crisis is attaining and retaining and good perspective.
As I have written before, without perspective we can easily get snagged in a number of different pitfalls.
How do you develop a good perspective?
I have already discussed study and spiritual life, as well as prayer.
Also gratitude.
Now I think it is a good idea to think about pace of life.
I recently made a step in the right direction on this issue.
By pace of life I mean taking the time to ponder things at a deeper level, prior to reacting based on the surface elements.
How?
The example I have comes from my work life.
I have a co-worker (person x) who is very ambitious. We also have very different communication styles that compounded to create a difficult working situation.
Over the past couple of years I have been trying to figure out how to work with them.
Recently I had to cover for both my colleagues while they were on vacation.
On returning, x cc'd me on an email to a senior scientist that I had been helping while x was away.
My first reaction was that part of the email was a dig at me. I felt myself getting upset. With an effort of the will I stopped myself from responding as I would have previously. After an hour identify back and read the email again. This time I was in a much better frame of mind. First I noted the tone of the email and simply concluded that I would never have used that tone with a senior scientist. Second, I was only cc'd, so no response was required.
End point, perhaps x intended to offer offense, but I simply left it on the table.
All because I slowed down and developed a broader perspective by realizing that I was emotionally charged and I should just give myself some time to reflect before I responded.
In this case I didn't need to respond. Since then I have set aside several emails for a few hours to ensure that I gave a considered and measured response instead of a ill-considered reaction.
P^3
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