Tuesday, June 7, 2011

What A Day For A Daydream

So yesterday I was in a meeting to discuss a major product launch coming out this weekend. One of my co-workers was presenting a host of details about how it would work. As with any topic (at least, as a management person whose philosophy is not to micromanage), there's the possibility that the questions about it could reach a level that I wasn't knowledgeable in. At a certain point, the conversation threatened to turn in that direction.

Almost involuntarily, I quickly took a mental step back from the situation and pictured myself sitting peacefully by the poolside at home. Because regardless of what took place in the next few seconds, whether or not my ignorance was probed, that's where I'd be in the near future. Any inklings of stress melted away. And as happens often in potentially worrisome situations, the conversation drifted away from the hot spot and actually became playful shortly after that.

I like to think that prior practice helped turn the visualization into more of a reflex. Who wouldn't take remedies for a cold when the symptoms pop up? And worry seems to be a greater destroyer.

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