What Does a Tire Jack Have to do with Listening?

How many opportunities have we lost, relationships damaged, self-esteem destroyed, and time squandered because of the movies our minds create when uncontrolled?

While driving down the country road a salesman got a flat tire. When he opened the trunk, to his dismay There Was No Jack!  “Darn teenager, he took my jack!” Disgusted, he looked around for where he might go for help. He soon noticed a farmhouse at the end of a long dirt road.  “Surely, a farmer would have a jack”, he thought.

As he walked toward the house he began to say to himself.  “What if the farmer doesn’t have a jack, then what am I going to do?” Now, feeling a little doubtful he thought. “What if he is just sitting down to dinner, he will be upset with me for interrupting his meal.”

By this time the salesman was starting to get a little upset about the reception he thought he was going to get at the door of the farmer.  His mind was really getting caught up in what was going to happen when he got to the house.

Another few minutes of walking and he just knew the farmer was going to open the door and say, “It is your own fault for not making sure the jack was in your car!”

The closer he got to the farmhouse the more irritated he became.  He could see it as clear as could be that the farmer was going to come out that door with a shotgun in his hand, threatening him and telling him to get his lazy “rear” off his property!

Finally, the salesman got to the farmer’s door.  He knocked with an angry rap and when the door opened the salesman yelled out at a very confused man, “Keep your dang jack, I didn’t want it anyway!!!!!”, and he turned around and stormed off towards his car.

Have you ever had that happen to you? How does this affect your communication, listening, and resolving issues at home or work?

Our minds have tremendous capacity to instantly create images and scenarios.  Yet, when dwelled upon, these scenarios become reality to the mind and it creates chemical reactions and emotions that go along with what we have created. If you want to know what you have been thinking, just check your feelings.

Just like the salesman, when we are faced with a challenging situation our minds can seem to naturally create the worst case scenario.  In just a couple of minutes our emotions can be in the tank and our attitudes in the toilet.  Once there and not checked it can take hours before the effects of this are out of our systems.  It damages our health, relationships, self-esteem, and our ability to communicate and relate with others.

The same can happen when we try to escape reality by living in an imaginary world, a place where the boss is better, the job pays more, the child respects you, or the neighbor isn’t a jerk!

If you find your mind going along the road of the salesman, stop! Bring it back into the positive, into the present, which is the only place you can deal effectively with the current challenges.

Your power to do, to influence, and to make good choices is greatly diminished and can come to a grinding halt when we allow our mind to go into these “worst case scenarios.  You get to decide!  It is your choice.

Don’t get “HIJACKED!