This last week at work, we had a team off-site in NYC for a few days and it was the first time I had to commute by bus in over 5 years.
I actually thoroughly enjoyed the commute - it gave me a chance to catch up on emails during my ride in so I didn’t feel absolutely slammed the moment I opened my laptop and I managed to catch a quick 20-minute nap before we pulled in. My body even remembered to wake me up as the bus started its spiral ascent into Port Authority so I didn’t have any awkward encounters with my seat-mate trying to play alarm clock.
It’s so funny how we respond to new environments and change. A commute, which I did for years and would often dread, became such a pleasant experience.
It shows how big of a role that context and emotion plays in perception. Despite performing the same action, we can experience things on entirely different sides of the enjoyment spectrum.
For example, replace the music in a horror movie and you’ll find that it’s no longer scary.
Other examples:
Waking up at 6am for an early work meeting vs. Waking up at 6am on a weekend for a early jog and breakfast with a friend
Sudden rain storm when you’re going somewhere important vs. romantic caught in the rain montage
Commute to work on Monday morning vs. Commute home from work on Friday evening
Going to the gym on January 1st vs Going to the gym on March 30th
I was talking to a group of friends the other day and I confessed that I was stuck in a bit of a rut lately. Despite things feeling fine and actually looking good on paper too, I was feeling burnt out and stressed. I couldn’t put my finger on why and whenever I tried to verbalize what I was feeling, there was just something about the words that I heard that didn’t feel entirely right.
But as I sat there on the bus and had a chance to think back and just reflect on everything, it hit me.
In the mundane, normalness of it all, I had lost my sense of gratitude.
Gratitude for my loved ones. Gratitude for health. Gratitude for peaceful weekends making fun memories. Gratitude for my job.
Just an overwhelming sense of gratitude for this life that I have stumbled into.
My circumstances haven’t changed. I still have a few stressful meetings coming up. I find it difficult to make time to work on some projects that I really wanted to focus on this year. There are big plans that we had to back-burner for now until a more appropriate time.
But the soundtrack is no longer the Jaws theme slowly rumbling in a minor key.
Sometimes context is everything.
Have a great week ahead.