Are You Missing What You Already Have?

Usually at work, I'm wishing for some uninterrupted quiet to just get things done. Time with no one coming to my office with a question, and no phone calls or emails to deal with.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy my co-workers and really couldn't ask for better people to work with. But most days, I need the reminder that I have stuck just under my computer screen.

People are not interruptions to my work; people are part of my work.

This afternoon, for one of the few times ever, I ended up with an hour of uninterrupted quiet. The rest of the the office was doing some training on a computer program I'm rather familiar with.

It was strange to be sitting in an office that was so quiet. They were just down the hall, but for that hour no one came to my office door, my phone didn't ring, and I didn't get any emails. Exactly what I've wished for sometimes.

And by the end of that hour, I was wishing for someone to come by my office. I was tired of the uninterrupted quiet. I wasn't used to it at work and it wasn't all that I thought it would be.

As I was driving home today, I started thinking about it and how that experience reflected on life at a greater scale.

How often do we wish for something? Thinking that if we just get that one thing we'll enjoy it fully. Only to find that once we get that, it isn't all that we thought it would be.

There are many things like this in life. We wish for some item, some relationship, some opportunity. Only to find ourselves wanting more when we actually get that.

Maybe we need to change our thinking. Instead of focusing on what we want, we need to focus on making the most of what we have.

At work I'd gotten to the point of focusing on how I wanted that uninterrupted quiet, when maybe I should have been focusing on the good in my job even when I have what can seem like interruptions to my work. People really are my work - not the tasks I have to complete. Because people - in this case - my coworkers are what makes my job enjoyable.

What about you? What are you focusing on that you wish you could have? What are you missing that you have right now because you're focusing on what you wish you could have?