How Blinding Pain Adjusted My Judgement
On Saturday I did something stupid. There was a delivery at our front door and there was a box and I thought, “okay, no problem, I'll pick it up and I'll bring it in.” But I misjudged it. It was very heavy, it was full of books. The moment I started picking it up, I knew I was in trouble. My back muscles just immediately protested and went into spasms.
I was not operating well at all, all the rest of the day. On Sunday I could barely walk. Monday morning I was in such a state of pain that I couldn't even work. We had to cancel my whole day. I was in no state to send an email, speak to people, let alone do some coaching sessions with clients. I just couldn't do it. We had to postpone the whole day and ask for those meetings to be moved.
This made me think; here I am, a relatively healthy person who trains regularly, who's pain free in my life and I so often think of people who are not stepping up to the plate. Their pain may be emotional pain, or it may be physical pain, but they're just not stepping up to the plate. I can so easily judge people, that's just part of my nature. Sometimes I just think they're lazy, they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing.
But thinking of empathy, thinking of this pain where I was so incapacitated, made me think maybe my role should be much better. If I get alongside people, listen to them, be more empathetic, and in that way be a support to them, but trying not to judge them, not trying to sympathize with them and try to urge them forward. Sometimes it's much more important to realize where people are and just to meet them there.
I had to adjust my judgement, learning from my own pain.
See you next week and in the meantime, let's be kind to people with pain.
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