Too Many Work Related Problems? Get Busy!

On March 25 of 2023, I had a heart attack. After a casual bike ride on a nice spring afternoon. I came home, drank a little Gatorade, and in about 15 minutes got a terrible case of indigestion. Or at least I thought it was indigestion.

The pain was like a muscle cramp between my shoulder blades. I would move and twist, stand up and sit down. Anything to try to relieve that cramp. Nothing helped it. After a while, and thanks to my wife's insistence, I headed to the hospital.

Within a couple hours I had been diagnosed, heart catheterized and had a stent put in my heart. I had blockage in what is commonly known as the Widowmaker artery. This is the most common heart attack where people seem to have no symptoms then suddenly just die.

Afterwards, people asked me if I was afraid. And my answer is no. I had no fear at all.

Now, some folks might interpret that is me being incredibly brave in all circumstances. No that's not it. I'm really a big chicken about anything that hurts.

Others might interpret my lack of fear as my confidence in my spiritual life, that God will take care of me on this world or in the next. While I am a spiritual person and do believe that, that's not why I had no fear either. Honestly, I wasn't even thinking about that.

The reason I had no fear was simple. I was too busy. I know that sounds kind of silly, but it is true. I was so busy coping with that pain and the anxiety of the physical discomfort that I just did not occur to me to have fear. I was totally preoccupied. I didn't have time for it. I was working so hard to try and solve the problem of what was happening to me. I didn't have time for fear. I only had time to try and solve my problem.

So there is my answer. I did not avoid fear because of my wisdom, my faith, or my courage. I avoided it because I simply had too much other stuff to do.

Why do I share this? And what does this have to do with problems at work? Well, it occurs to me, and I have heard others say, that people focus on problems at work when they don't have enough to do. Maybe the problems are legitimate. Maybe not. But it's worth asking the question. Do we need to get more busy so we focus less on our problems and more on our solutions?

I'm not suggesting that more work is a solution to all of our problems. But it might be a solution to some of them. Think about it.