By Patrick McNerthney
One of my least favorite things about work is the meetings. It’s nobody’s fault, i.e. there’s nothing wrong with the people I meet with. They’re actually quite lovely. No, the problem with Me-In-Meetings is twofold:
- I’m instantly bored, sleepy, and hungry at the 15-minute mark, regardless of how important or edge of your seat fascinating the topic is. No joke, I mean it–I could set my watch by it (not that I HAVE, but yes, I have).
- I end up nodding my head as if I’m following along and actually wiggling my wrist, as if tracking what follow-up action needs to be taken, by whom, and when, while the truth is my brain can only loosely connect real-time conversations with action plans on-the-fly. Plus nodding along looks good on me–like, hey, that Patrick is an agreeable, amiable, can-do kinda guy!
(This is my head at the 15-minute mark.)
And therein lies the true problem (trumpet blair): the pursuit of easy. Whether from a meeting, a book, a social media post, or (ahem) a blog, it’s super fun and incredibly easy to encounter new ideas that make us go, “BINGO – that is AWESOME. I am SO writing this down…”
But writing it down doesn’t amount to much. It’s that next step—that one that makes meetings so painful to me—when we declare, “Ok, great! Now that we have this incredibly cool inspiring information, what’s our next best move?”
And then comes the clincher: Making that move!
Alas, that’s the critical chasm between talking about stuff (grrrrrr, meetings), and stating, “You know what, let’s try it. Go! Go!” Remember, there’s a reason that we wrote down that new idea in the first place. That’s where the magic is. Everything that happens after writing down the idea amounts to a bunch of reasons to make things easy on ourselves by contriving excuses to avoid making the next best move.
Over to you. Maybe you’re reading this blog and finding a BINGO moment; or bored out of your mind, you’re wanting to close the window so you don’t have to think about what to do next. Who knows?
But there’s good news here: the key ingredient for making your next awesomely best move is the fact that Fine Art Miracles (FAM) can help!
FAM champions creative expression as a tool to help your residents or loved ones overcome anxiety and depression caused by social isolation. It turns out Art Therapy, Drama Therapy, Dance and Movement Therapy, Art2Go packages (and SO much more) reconnect the elderly, children with challenges, and anyone needing help with life’s daily tasks with the belief that they (a.) have agency in their own lives, (b.) can help others, and (c.) MATTER.
Pretty powerful stuff. The best part is, FAM has made this next best move so incredibly easy, all you have to do is drop them a note or give them a call and they’ll explain pricing, timing, how to build the cadence that will best suit the needs of those you care for, and the science behind their programs.
So what are you waiting for? You don’t need permission to connect and care, you don’t even need to call a meeting!
So guess what I have in store for the rest of my day? That’s right–about four hours of MEETINGS. Oh well. I’m prepared this time: I brought snacks, lunch, and not just a mask, but a sleeping mask. I actually can’t wait!
