You are Sharing Their Load - episode 224
How about when the load is too heavy for you to bear. Someone comes along and actually helps you carry it because they see what you need. You take it off and they put it on. They don’t rush you, and will be there as long as it takes as they support you through the process. That is one great strength to have as it requires empathy. And that is Mike Pittman’s superpower. He is our guest this week.
Mike has been on UY before in Confidence: A Belief it’s Going to Work.
You don’t need to be like anybody else.
Get out of the noise so you can hear yourself and then you follow that. — Mike Pittman
Is Slow Better?
Thoughts from You are Sharing Their Load
In our conversation I told Mike I thought he has a discerning eye and that it translates across his life. It’s in the way he sees that other people need help, it’s in the way he saw himself as a child and decided to change, and it’s also in the way he takes pictures. Mike is a photographer and as you can see through his work he does have an incredible eye for the visual. That’s what initially drew me to his account, the way he frames photos, the lighting, the subject matter, and I was intrigued. Plus he named his account Tall Bald Mike. You have to know this guy’s got a sense of humor.
Toward the end of our recording Mike told the story of being at the beach with his wife and how he wanted to get an epic shot of a hummingbird in flight. One came but by the time he went to get the shot it flew away (of course). He felt he had missed it entirely but his wife Jennifer encouraged him to wait, and to be patient. Sure enough, after quite a while had gone by he got this shot and yes, it is incredible. The improbable became the possible became the reality.
I can’t help but wonder how many times we miss out on something, someone, some experience because we are impatient creatures, wanting things now. I certainly fall in that camp as a Type A (remember that?), get stuff done, check-it-off-my-list person. What have I missed out on by going too fast? Just the other night we went out to dinner and a play with friends. We took a quick selfie as the sun set. It was a lovely night but it wasn’t until a couple of days later when I looked at the photo that I noticed one swath of white clouds framing the right side of the sky. I love clouds. They make me feel happy, hopeful and at peace. I notice I take a deep breath and drop my shoulders when I take the time to really see them, to really be in the present moment drinking them in. I would have missed it except for the photo.
I just finished a book that talked about how to better ground yourself into being in the present. (I can’t think of the title as it was two books ago. It might have been Swan Song or The Last Love Note, not sure. Actually it was Mistakes We Never Made.) Anyway one of the characters told the other one to do the following when she was feeling anxious: find and name 3 things you can see; find and name 3 things you can hear; find and name 3 things you can feel. I gotta say I have actually done it a few times and I think it works at helping me focus on that moment in time. Go ahead and try it. Let me know what you find.
Anyway in wrapping up, I am aware that I would like to slow down in some moments and not be continually striving. Striving is in-and-of-itself fine but it can’t be the only speed in life. There has to be slow. There has to be wait. There has to be patient. If you can do that you just may see something so beautiful it will take your breath away and make your heart sing.
Slow down enough that life will take your breath away with its beauty.
— Photo by Mike Pittman
