December 29, 2010

I like to move and anyone who knows me knows I can’t sit still for long (unless I’m having my morning tea or sitting in a theatre). Even in my office, I’m on the move all day. Getting out of my chair often helps me sustain both my mental and physical stamina. I probably log a couple of miles a day just moving around the office.

So being confined on an airplane seems like false imprisonment for me and I quickly become restless and uncomfortable. Shortly after take-off on my 6 ½ hour flight from New York City to San Diego as part of our Great Christmas Migration, I realized I had to do something about my uncomfortable seat or I’d be miserable for the rest of the flight. I wanted to arrive in San Diego in better condition than my luggage and there was a solution in the overhead bin, a small lumbar cushion I had packed in my carry-on bag. Tom accuses me of traveling with teapot, table and tent and on this trip I was completely defenseless of the accusation. I tossed Tom a huge smile, asking him to pull down my bag, which was wedged behind his.

Tom is normally a bundle of restless energy but when we’re on an airplane he’s a perfect candidate for blood clots. As soon as we board, he’ll hunker down and build himself a nest in his airplane seat surrounded by his books, tech magazines, Bose headset, iPod, iPhone, bottle of water and his laptop. If I don’t remind him to move, he won’t budge or even look up from his work until it’s time to get off the plane. This is great if he’s in the window seat because he never climbs over you. But it also makes him severely resistant to any requests (other than an emergency) that involve getting up once he’s nested.

You can imagine that Tom’s response to my plea for assistance was textbook husband-speak: “Are you sure you want to pull that cushion out of your bag?” While his question might have sounded reasonable to a stranger, 20 years of marriage allowed me to quickly translate what he was really asking me: “Now that we’re seated with our drinks, magazines, newspapers and laptops, are you sure you want me to get up, haul your bag out of the overhead, take everything out of it and dig out that small cushion stashed in the very bottom, just so you can see if it will make you comfortable? And are you really sure you want me to put down my work, shut my laptop, fold up my tray table, unbuckle my seatbelt, stand up and go to all that trouble, only to have to get up again, as soon as I’ve settled back in, and repeat the process to repack the bag and then wedge it back up there?”

My response was an unqualified, “Yes! The two minutes it will take us to do this is a great trade-off for 6-½ hours of comfort.” Tom grudgingly agreed and we retrieved and unpacked the bag I had so meticulously packed just hours before.

Here’s how simple making myself comfortable turned out to be:

1. Move tray table and stand up – 5 seconds
2. Pull down bag – 15 seconds
3. Open bag – 10 seconds
4. Dig to absolute, very bottom beneath everything I’d carefully arranged and retrieve cushion – 30 seconds
5. Arrange cushion on seat – 10 seconds
6. Stuff everything back in – 35 seconds
7. Return bag to overhead – 10 seconds
8. Sit back down – 5 seconds

Total time invested – 120 seconds, or 2 minutes, for 6-½ hours of comfort.

The entire process required much less time than I spent thinking about whether I wanted to go to the trouble to retrieve the cushion and the time Tom took trying to talk me out of it. My 2-minute investment paid off with 6-½ hours of comfort.

Is there something you can be doing in your Certified Legal Nurse Consulting business that has a comparable payoff? Is there something you keep putting off? To have a better relationship, a better CLNC^® business or a better life, often all you have to do is be willing to invest in the smallest of ways. Invest today to ensure your comfort tomorrow. Stop the insanity, i.e. all the excuses for why you can’t, won’t or shouldn’t do something. Today is the day to commit to one small action. Whether a shift is large or small – a simple step toward comfort (like getting my cushion) or a major shift in your legal nurse consulting business – that change is often just 2 minutes away.

Have a more comfortable flight through your day.

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