To Catch a Hummingbird
I hope this note finds you well and sorry for not writing more regularly. Life seems to get crazy busy at times and then I drop a ball or two (one being this blog!!) Sound familiar? I think we’re all guilty of that from time to time but how do we break the cycle and regain focus?
Well, last week I was fortunate to be spending time at my home in Carmel, California, away from the hubbub and an opportunity to take a deep breath and refocus. It is so different from my usual inner-city living in Chicago. Perhaps the most striking difference is the quietness – no sirens, nobody shouting, no car doors slamming, just absolute peace. The quietness seems to help me think, it’s as if the extraneous noise of the city clouds my brain and away from it I can think! What a rare luxury these days it seems.
So, one morning while sitting on the deck, enjoying the quiet and reading through some notes, it occurred to me to share a story with you (especially as I haven’t shared anything with you in a while).
A couple of days prior a hummingbird had been flying around our deck. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had all the French doors open wide. The hummingbird decided it would like to visit us inside the house and I found it flying up against the large windows in our sitting room. It didn’t know how to get out into the wide-open space it could see outside so it just kept banging up against the glass. Up and down the window it went, bashing its little head and beak into the glass but all to no avail, it was stuck!
How many of you feel like that hummingbird, feeling like you can see a way forward but for all the effort you put in you don’t seem to be getting anywhere? The story of this hummingbird was a perfect illustration to me that sometimes hard work and determination won’t be enough to be successful. So what do you do then?
Well, the hummingbird actually turned out to be pretty smart. After trying to “guide” it back through the French doors (ok, that was probably a stupid idea, whoever guided a bird anywhere?) my husband and I decided we better try to catch it instead. Armed with a linen napkin and a plastic container we carefully placed the napkin over the bird (which by this time was sitting on the windowsill) and gently moved it into the plastic container. The bird smartly decided not to get agitated but instead seemed to accept our help as we nudged it along. Once it was in the container, with the napkin on top to keep it inside, we moved onto the deck and simply let it fly away – it was no longer stuck.
The bird reminded me of a number of things:
If I’m working really hard but not feeling like I’m getting anywhere I should turn around and look for other possibilities. What am I missing, what am I not seeing, how could I show up differently and be open to different possibilities for action?
When someone offers to help me, let them. Don’t assume I can always figure everything out for myself and simply power through when things get tough.
The advantages of being part of a team with a clear common goal and an explicit measure of success – in this case, catch the bird, release it into the open air.
What have you been working hard on recently but feeling like that little bird, banging your head against the window and getting nowhere fast?
Do you accept help when it’s offered or do you prefer to go it alone?
Are your own and your team’s goals explicit and achievable?
Take some time today to think about that. What could you be doing differently to make the biggest impact on your work and life? Write down one thing and then do it.