Think Category

Well the ash cloud is interrupting flights again. We are struck by the many alternative responses that people give to this:

– compassion for the shattered dreams of those wishing to travel (an important business meeting delayed, a postponed wedding, a funeral missed, a much needed holiday lost)

– delight at the reduction in carbon emissions from grounded jets

– awe at our human futility in the face of natural wonder

– anger at “health and safety gone mad”

– frustration at our collective impotence reinforced and our insignificance historically as well as environmentally

– worry at where this will end if other volcanoes erupt.

 What’s your reaction? Which is the one that is most helpful do you think?

When something frustrating happens today, try to see as many different ways of looking at it as you can.  What are the hypotheses that might make that behaviour of a colleague frustrating?  What are you finding difficult in that meeting?

You might find you can change your reaction.