Is it Enought?

Joe, a friend of mine, once invited me for lunch at his house. He keeps a fierce German shepherd as his pet named Dexter. This particular day Dexter was on his mat. Lying there, he looked so uneasy.

“What’s wrong with Dexter today? He looks disturbed” I raised my concern

“He has been acting up all morning, stuck in his couch.”  Showing little concern for Dexter, “He is nowadays mature and he knows what to do in case there is a problem.” Joe continued.

“What do you mean he knows what to do?” I was puzzled

“He is lying on a pin and he won’t move until it is painful enough.”

That incident has since made an impression on me and it kept me thinking for long.

How many times do we stick ourselves in situations that we are not yet ready to move away from because it is not painful enough? How many times do we find solace in our comfort zones because we are not hit hard enough to move into action? Must it be painful enough for us to start working on the solutions?

Sometimes we find ourselves in some sort of situations that we don’t like but are reluctant to work on it. We think we can stand the pain. We thus tend to delay our move to action. At the end of the day, we get used to it and treat it as a little problem that needs no urgent attention. Then one situation leads to another and so on until there is a total collapse of the system. A system to rescue the situation, the system to success.

Many of us have come across the Broken Windows theory. It argues that if a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes. This theory applies to us too. If we fail to repair the broken windows in our lives soon enough, if we fail to move until it is painful enough, the pain will become contagious and more windows will be broken, causing significant problems. And guess what, it might never be painful enough for you to move.

The other side of the coin: if it will never be painful enough, you will remain lying there like Dexter. Opportunities will come and go, time will pass you by. You will paralyze your competence waiting for the situation to get bad enough. So,

Move! Take action in face of a problem. Confront your situations head on. Ask for help if it is a must. Don’t just sit there waiting for the impetus to engage in the confrontation to come from pain.

It might not be painful enough.

©Olegamba 2014.