How Being Too Focused Could Kill You: What I Learned From My Black Bathing Suit
Posted on September 07, 2015 by Pamela Thorp, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
It's necessary to have clear vision and action plans, but when is it time to let go of the controls and allow your more intuitive side take the wheel?
We are taught to believe that focus is imperative when it comes to productivity. And it often is. Having a clear idea of where you want to go and how to get there is sound strategy. Likewise, consistency and adherence to a disciplined work ethic can culminate in impressive outcomes. Without these things we can forever float in the ether. But good constructs, no matter how sound, can become defunct. Once with the program we can develop tunnel vision, like a horse with blinders (imagine them tacked to the sides of your head). In that state we can’t recognize it may be time for a shift; time to let go. That can be a problem.
So here’s what I learned from my black bathing suit. I loved that bathing suit, a well-worn but still functional and flattering garment.
The scene: I’m blessing out on a perfect summer day, walking home from the pool. I had said bathing suit wrapped up in my towel (did I mention I loved that suit?) and got home to my sunlit-dappled late afternoon NYC apartment. Once there I proceeded to deconstruct the pool paraphernalia in my normal methodical fashion. When I got to the rolled towel, heavy and wet, I stood at the big, low-willed window in my study and shook it out, intending to drape it there to dry. As I did so I witnesses the suit neatly nestled in the folds. Viewing things in slow-mo I shouted, No! No! No! as it gracefully tumbled out and down, down, down. Down four stories into the alleyway below.
Here’s the inner soundtrack: Oh fuck, my favorite suit. Getitgetitgetit!!!!! How stewwwwpid could I be???? Grabitgrabitgrabit!! But I just stood there frozen, watching. Not normal for me as I have lightening-fast reflexes. I could have grabbed for that damn suit, just bent over, made a lunge for it and caught it in a strong sure fist. I really could have. But I didn’t; just stood there frozen in the window frame, watching the balletic dance of a falling black bathing suit plopping into a NYC back alley. It landed next to a row of marinating garbage cans working overtime.
In the immediate aftermath I mourned the loss and chastised my ineffectiveness. I went downstairs and tried to chase down the super who held the keys to my suit’s retrieval. Then a 100 watt lightbulb lit up in my brain. Had I gone full throttle, on-task, fully committed to the reclaiming of that beloved few inches of soaked spandex, I likely would have lost my balance and followed it down ending in a nasty culmination of a beautiful afternoon. Just like that. That’s how things happen.
Urgency plus velocity plus undeterred focus on a mission very well may have ended in one of those New York Post headlines: West Village Woman Falls Four Stories: The Black Bathing Suit of Death.
The message here: Have your goals, work with clarity and focus, value what you know, keep your eye on the ball—— but invite your intuitive part in. It can know things you don’t know that you know. Things that can benefit your life in so many ways.
And I got two great new bathing suits—on sale!
