Last week, I was faced with a dilemma. The shrimp I wanted for dinner was enclosed in a resealable bag. You’d think it would have been a simple thing to open it, right? But no, I absolutely couldn’t get buying on both sides of the close.
Hungry and not entirely rational, I struggled for quite some time, growing distraught. I tried using a rubber grip that I use to open recalcitrant bottle caps, but it wasn’t available. Finally, I opened the kitchen drawer where I keep useful tools and took out a pair of pliers. Yes please. And that worked! It allowed me to grab one end while the pliers opened the other end.
I was very proud of myself. My solution might not have been elegant but it was functional. And I’ve needed to use the pliers every time since I coveted shrimp.
This experience made me start to think about the “tools” I have that can make my life easier, but I forget they exist and therefore neglect to use them.
For example, I finally broke down and bought a kneeler and garden seat to keep the wear and tear on my knees when I plant or weed my gardens. I immediately put it to use in the spring when I first received it, because I was planting a lot. However, even though it’s right by my back door, I forgot I had it and went back to kneeling on the ground to plant and weed later. In other words, we have tools available that we overlook, making our tasks unnecessarily more difficult.
On a more professional note, I spent a few days last week developing a response to a request for proposal to conduct a three-day leadership and management training program. I took my typical first step, which is to search my archives to see if I have any relevant lesson plans, training materials, and/or past training proposals that I can incorporate or adapt.
Since the client wanted specific content that I had not previously addressed, my file search did not return enough results. My next step, therefore, was to start searching Google for articles and learning activities on the desired content. I spent hours searching the web, selecting and reading articles to see if they would be useful.
Finally, a simple reference in one of those articles led me to where I should have been looking in the first place. The reference was for a book of learning activities for teaching management and leadership. In fact, I had published one of my learning activities in that book, which was on my shelf. An excellent resource had been at my fingertips, but I had forgotten it even existed.
We always rush to the next thing, assuming someone else will have the answers if we can only find them, without acknowledging that we may already have the tools we need.
What tools do you already have that can make your work and life more comfortable?
