Impatient with Paced Work

I walked in to work today from the parking lot and was striding at a pace slightly faster than the manlift following the same path. My head was slightly thumping from the stress settling in on me with another day of “to do’s. Two thoughts flashed through my mind:

  1. I wouldn’t mind having a job where 40% of the time I was responsible for slow, paced, physical activity. Paint only paints so fast. Construction materials are only handled so fast. You can only weld so quickly.
  2. Then as I passed the manlift and the worker driving it, I thought, “Why does it have to move so slow? I don’t like idle time. Wouldn’t it be better to drive quickly to the work, and then do it?

I desire the patience and slow metronome of physical labor. Seconds later, I feel frustration because my mind has moved beyond and started to think at a higher global level (doing the overall job, not just driving the machine to the job).

Conclusions: “Grass is always greener…” and you’ll only comfortably work at a job properly scoped for the horizon your brain works at. Some people need to assemble bolts. Some people need to build tables. Some people need to design new ones. People are different. Not better or worse, but different.

About Brian

Engineer. Aviator. Educator. Scientist.
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