With holiday baking upon us, I was excited to order some new measuring cups online. But the cups were bound by a metal ring that wouldn’t budge, no matter how hard I tugged. Frustrated, I dropped them, and as they tipped over, the answer appeared. The cup handles had covered up where the hinge opened—I was pulling on the wrong end! The cups are fantastic, but as you can tell, my approach to anything mechanical needs some serious re-engineering!
In the December series, Thank You and Good Night, we’re talking through three simple questions: (1) what would you like to cultivate; (2) what would you like to release; and (3) what needs to be re-engineered? As we get ready to say good-bye to the year, have you had an experience like I did, where a good idea didn’t quite turn out the way you hoped? That idea may be worthwhile, but you could need to re-engineer your approach. Let me tell you how a friend is using every soft skill he has to re-engineer the craziness of 2020.
After years of working for a bakery chain, Carlos saved the money to go out on his own. He leased a hole-in-the-wall retail space in downtown Seattle that had plenty of foot traffic from waterfront tourists. His family cookie recipe was a hit and business boomed.
But everything changed when the pandemic hit. Tourism was at a standstill, and Carlos’ regular lunchtime business customers were gone, too. He choked up, saying that he probably hasn’t handled the year with as much grace as he would have liked.
However, little grace notes keep popping up. Carlos and his wife have re-engineered their business top to bottom. They took an adaptable, creative approach, forging partnerships with small coffee shops as their dessert supplier. They made thoughtful choices about what products to keep and what to let go. They showed compassion by starting a special program where customers can fund thank you deliveries for COVID caregivers. And they demonstrated a lot of heart by simply putting one foot in front of the other, just like the rest of us. In the end, they’ve been surrounded by amazing grace.
Are you like Carlos, where you’ve been forced to pivot in ways you never imagined? Take heart—2020 may not have been the year you hoped for, but you’ve probably done better than you think. Everyone drops the ball. Everyone loses their temper. Everyone feels hopeless. The trick is to pick yourself up and find the grace, not focus on all the ways you came up short this year.
So, how will you use soft skills to re-engineer what is off-kilter? Finish the sentence, “I’d love to improve ____.” Here are a few ideas from past posts to help you get started:
* Re-engineer your wellness. In “Coming Out with a Custom Self-Care Routine,” we learned that you can’t just intend to be well. Use healthy self-esteem and make a self-care plan.
* Re-engineer your outlook. In “Cap Your Complaints,” we discussed how a long rant may feel good, but it ultimately only drags you down. Instead, cap how long you’ll complain and use creativity to transform strong emotions.
* Re-engineer your expectations. In “Give and Receive Grace Freely,” we learned that hard times cut both ways. Extend grace when you need to and humbly receive it as well.
Buddha said, “Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” What we do, day in and day out, has never mattered more than 2020. So, take all the lessons you’ve learned from whatever irritated, pushed, or stretched you, and turn it into wisdom. The next time you face a similar challenge, you’ll know just what to do. And what about everything else that you’d rather forget? Say a grateful, “Thank you and good night.”