Stop and Wonder

Sometimes complacency can be interpreted as comfort or boredom.  This contentment will prevent change (and growth) and inhibit anxiety without exerting much energy.  Some people may welcome the predictability of the day, until something changes around them, outside their control that requires them to act without the skill, knowledge or experience needed to be proactive and able to manage the circumstances that will guarantee a favorable outcome.  Somehow they took a pause on life’s highway while everyone else kept moving. 

Other people are busy working but not focused on what to work on first or what matters most.  Their activity includes subconscious behaviors of un-prioritized tasks and unmanaged distractions.  They work “on it all” without knowing what the goal is or when it is reached.  Their office is filled with piles, hoping that “someday” the world will stop and they will be able to “catch-up.”

Seems people are either “set and stuck” or “crazy busy.”  As the adage goes “no change; no change.” How can the boredom end and the chaos dissipate?  I suggest we stop and wonder.

Ever ‘wonder’ what your life will be like when you are 70?  If it is going to be different from today, you will experience change.  Change begins with wonder.

Wonder has two meanings.  One is to marvel and be in awe of something.  The other is having a sense of curiosity and contemplation.

After we stop and wonder, the first step in change is awareness.  If we are not scratching our head and asking ourselves if there is a better way, then improvement and efficiency will elude us.  Break the boredom and pause the chaos — stop and wonder.

Ask yourself: Is there a better way?  Can someone else do it better?  Is it really necessary?  Is something else more important?  What is most important?  Am I doing the right things first?  Who is important in my life?  What is my why?  Why do I fight the battle every day?

We cannot base our actions on undiscriminated feelings and unrehearsed reactions.  Instead, use questions and answers; our thoughts determine our feelings.  How we feel is determined by what we think – we all have that response-ability and the ability to response.

“Your subconscious mind recognizes and acts only upon thoughts which have been well-mixed with emotion and feeling.” –N. Hill

The world is not going to give you or anyone else a pause.  Tomorrow will not have 36 hours.  But tomorrow is a good time to stop and wonder.  Nothing will change until you do.  Everything that has a beginning has an ending.  Make change your choice or you will be part of someone else’ choice and you will be faced to act without being fully prepared.

Consider the caterpillar that stops and forms a cocoon; after time it evolves into a butterfly and flies away.  You can fly after you stop and wonder.  Enjoy the journey.

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