Remember To Take Inventory Of The Things That Come Easy, Too

Have you ever worked a pizza job? When orders slow down, and all the trash has already been taken out, your manager will probably put you on the quintessential task of folding pizza boxes. They come flat-packed and fold-fold-fold; you'll build a three-dimensional object. And truly, there are few greater pleasures than seeing the stack of boxes two times taller than you are when you're done.

It's a pretty common psychological principle – when we can look at the fruits of our labor, we get more satisfaction from doing it, and we tend to work faster, too. For example, taking inventory of everything you've accomplished in a year is a powerful motivating force. You know how long it took you to fold all those extra-larges.

But what about taking inventory of the blessings we didn't work for at all? When I go on vacation, I have a tendency to come off the plane, open the laptop, and immediately pretend like I didn't just learn to zipline and surf. Like deflecting a compliment, it's almost second nature. There's some part of me, and others, I think, that believes if it's unearned, it's not as valuable. Listening to the rain is easy – nailing the big presentation is hard, and our bodies are wired to reward success against the odds.

When you're Stepping Back To Grow, and the only things you look back on are things you toiled over, you're working with an incredibly skewed narrative of the past. I've been struggling with that reflexive deflection for a while now, so on a recent trip to Costa Rica, I decided on some small personal disruption. To ensure I didn't come back and tell others it was "great, fine, yes," I wrote down every moment I caught myself pausing and appreciating something I didn't have to work for.

"In the early morning, I heard the monkeys talking to each other. They were quite boisterous." Simple, small things are just as valuable as big promotions. When you Step Back To Grow, do you see the whole picture? Or are you just focusing on how long it took you to fold those extra-large boxes – and how many more are left?

Take time to pause and reflect on the small moments.

How are you stepping back to grow today?

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