Top of a mans head falls off in front row center
My old trading pal Grinder (a trading reference) told me a story once.
One that left an impression so vivid that I’m self-conscious whenever I’m at a live event.
And as it turns out, the artist of the song playing in my ears right now was involved in the incident.
But this incident was in Calgary some years ago.
Grinder was in the front row watching Ben Harper live.
Everything was going great.
The concert was a banger.
And Harper sat down to play an acoustic piece.
Then it happened.
The top of Grinder’s head fell right off as Harper was looking at him.
The second Harper saw him, he stopped playing and said, “Really? Common man!”
Now, whenever I feel the temptation to yawn in the middle of a live event I’m doing everything I can to conceal it.
Pretend it isn’t happening.
But you know how it is when you’re at one of those events and in a room with a bunch of other people. The climate control system is humming in the background. And the air is making the entire environment feel like the perfect place to take a nap.
You can’t help but let the top of your head fall off in this situation.
I think the guys that run the buildings set this up for every live presentation on purpose as a practical joke.
At least the speaker on stage isn’t heckling the members of the audience.
Although, stopping a song right in the middle of it to admonish some one in the front row is hilarious.
But of course, a stuffy room is not always the reason for waning attention and a gigantic yawn.
At least it’s relaxing.
But when you’re in the thick of a challenge you’re usually in the opposite state.
Everything is on red alert.
The lights are going off, and your entire body is ramped up. You’d probably prefer a speech in a stuffy, crowded room to dial things down a bit.
Except when it’s “Chemo Teach.”
Now if you’ve never been to one of these, trust me, you don’t want this on your bucket list.
I did everything I could to get out of it. I was fine mentally. I knew I could get through what was coming, and I didn’t know what would happen if I attended.
But it wasn’t as bad as I thought in that way. It was worse in others.
The session was to tell you what to expect when you were getting treated. The idea was to eliminate most of the surprises. The one thing they emphasized was that if you got sent down from the top floor to a couple floors down, do not panic.
The top floor was the main treatment area. Patients interpreted getting sent to the lower floors as something more serious than being sent to an area for treatment overflow.
So they made sure you were prepared for that.
I remember looking around the room. There was every kind of person you could imagine. Young and old. Men and women. People in every state of health. Well, other than perfectly healthy.
There was no yawning here.
Everyone there was in some state of overwhelm. Some of it visible. Much of it not.
And it is a reminder to me now that everyone has something going on, but much of the time, you aren’t aware of it.
I had no idea about the lives of everyone there other than like me, they were focused on a problem that was right in front of them.
Although, in my case, I was thinking about something else.
I was thinking about the path beyond the problem.
The recovery part.
I didn’t want to be obsessed with the minutia of what they were talking about.
Hair falling out, the taste of metal in your mouth, puking, mouth sores?
No.
I wanted to create a base when all these potential catastrophes were past if they happened at all.
And it turned out to be a good decision because where you focus your attention is where your energy is going.
So, picking a future place where the thing in front of you is complete and the foundation to lift off is present is a valuable strategy.
The big picture is far more important.
And that’s how you keep your head in the game when the journey ahead is tough.
You can always get through with the big vision in front of you, even if it’s a month or three away or even longer.
So pick a worthy vision and plot the course there as a byproduct of overcoming what’s in front of you.
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