What does the average 35 year old small business owner do when faced with a couple hours of waiting in Chicago’s Union Station? First, you whip out the Mifi, crank up the laptop, switch on the noise-canceling headphones and tune out the world while catching up on email.
That’s not what I did recently. I put my luggage and technology in a locker and went for a walk. I did three activities, and learned four lessons.
First, I looked up the closest geocaches and went for a hunt. My motivation was to burn time, get fresh air, and make my wife enjoy every minute we had left in Chicago. I’m not super familiar with Chicago, so I just followed the iPhone GPS street map. We walked about four blocks before we realized that our starting point was about a block from our destination in the first place. If we had turned left instead of right, we would have gone straight there.
LESSON:
- Taking stock of where you are and which direction you are facing in relation to where you want to be can save you a long trip. In business, this can mean the difference between measuring failure and success. Even if you checked your tasks off the list, you may have a hard time hitting your milestones.
- In life though, I’m glad I went the wrong way. I’ll never enjoy the memory of walking the right way. But I’ll never forget the time we walked four blocks to sit on the other end of the same bench.
more to come…
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