The One Rabbit Rule

By Belinda

After three busy days it was Thursday before I found myself at my office this week. Opening my door on its quietness had the feel of entering a sanctuary, an island of peace in a wild ocean of work.

I unzipped the briefcase, unpacked and plugged in my laptop and mentally rehearsed the list of issues that I needed to follow up on and soon I was making the first phone call of the day. At the other end of the phone was a colleague at our corporate office--the person to help me with one item. I can tell when someone is trying hard to be patient. I imagined that I was just one of many people calling to work out the many issues she had on the go that day. In fact her whole job is dealing with people like me who come to her with paperwork completed "creatively," rarely correctly, by our staff and their doctors. 

After I hung up the phone, with several file folders open on my desk by this point, I checked my email. My in-box had escaped my control during the past week and had grown to over 400 emails. I began to delete insignificant ones when something caught my eye on one that I was about to delete--a Quote of the Week. I paused to read it and it made me laugh! A moment later, still laughing, I sent this message to my team--and the colleague at our corporate office:
"This quote made me laugh. So that's what's wrong! :) Let's all try to catch one rabbit today--how to choose--how to choose! :)" 
Quote of the week ~ “If you chase two rabbits both will escape."Chinese Proverb
The emails started coming back. Endorphins were flowing all over as we laughed at the rabbits loose in our respective offices. Two of us even had one each on our laps, and two people decided to get themselves a dog--in fact my colleague at corporate even named hers Snoopy.

It was so good to just laugh! But although I laughed, I also saw such wisdom in that Chinese proverb. It has stuck with me through the past three days and kept me chasing one rabbit at a time and catching it before going on to the next one.

Comments

Leslie said…
Too timely, as we have an actual rabbit enjoying our garden and outsmarting our dog. I use to pride myself on multi-tasking- I'm wiser now.
Belinda said…
I KNOW, Leslie, I thought this morning about how we are like jugglers with so many balls up in the air. I am training :) myself to a new pattern. The ONE RABBIT RULE. :)
I'm ok with the one rabbit rule, but sometimes, the other wascally wabbits get in the way. Thanks for the day brightener.
Marilyn Yocum said…
Good advice for me to hear at the moment!
Belinda said…
Dear friends--Dave and Marilyn, I feel so much calmer and I hope you do too, in spite of the wascally wabbits underfoot! :)

At church this morning my friend Jamie said he'd read the post and he was saying how it bothers him when someone is talking to him and he sees their eyes wander over his shoulder to someone else--another rabbit. I apologized because I KNOW I've done that. From now on it will be the wabbit in fwont of me that I am going to concentrate on! :)

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