How many times have you found yourself in a traffic jam, and then when you finally got up to the problem, it was nothing more than one car that has rear-ended another car with minimal damage?
Instead of moving the cars out of the way and limiting the traffic jam to the slow-down caused by gawkers, they just sit in the middle of the road and wait for help to arrive. Oblivious to the pain and needs of others, their problems are put above the needs of the masses trying to get on with their lives.
How is it that, so often, we are able to ignore the needs of others while we spend all our time wallowing in our own problems, feeling like the entire world is against us? The amazing thing about life is that, most of the time, if you spend more time worrying about what other people need instead of your own problems, you’ll find that things have a way of working themselves out.
I was reminded of this phenomenon today when I got an email asking me to get my column written. In short story form, the sender was able to remind me that, even though my pay is very low for this column, there were other people that were affected by my semi-regular tardiness in turning in my column. It seems that I’d become the person blocking the “interstate” of publishing the paper with my procrastination. My excuses for not getting my column turned in in a timely fashion were nothing but excuses.
It’s sometimes easy to forget the way we affect other people’s lives and easy to ignore the fact that a little consideration or thought on our part can make other people’s lives a lot better. Just the little effort of moving our “cars” out of the way could really make a difference in someone’s life.
I have said it before, and I will say it again: I hereby pledge to get my columns done in a more timely fashion and remember that by doing so I can show that I respect the time of others and am aware that I’m not at the center off the universe.
While this isn’t the first time I’ve made this pledge, I really feel like I mean it this time. That’s good for me and it’s good for others. Whenever you can do something and everybody wins, it’s a good thing. That’s true for everybody, especially those of us way up in the CHEAP SEATS!
Bill James is a co-founder of the James Law Firm with offices in Little Rock, Conway and Fayetteville, Arkansas. His primary area of practice is criminal defense. He can be contacted at Bill@JamesFirm.com