We like shiny glossy things. I remember a while ago I was looking to purchase a new flat screen TV. Reviewers were lamenting the demise of matte screens. They said that the matte screens were easier to view – especially in highly lit rooms. But because the glossy screens looked more, well, shiny, they sold better from the showroom floor.
Glossing Over
Today I want to talk about a different kind of glossy. I want talk about how we often live glossy lives, as in, we gloss over a lot of our life. We skim the details. We avoid looking below the surface.
In doing this, we miss things. We miss that our spouse is harboring a deeper and deeper grudge. We foster conflict in the workplace and miss that that coworker is a part of the human race too – that they have hopes and dreams, and disappointments just like we do.
Deeper Questions
The one area I want to highlight the most, though, is that significant things happen in our lives that we gloss over. We minimize them. We tell ourselves that it’s no big deal, when in fact it is and should be a big deal.
When I had my heart attack, people were surprised because of my age, but otherwise the response was, “well, you’re good now, right?” As if, I was all fixed up, so I should head back to life as usual.
The deeper significant questions I was wrestling with were just glossed over. No one talked about these, and when I brought them up, the response was something like, “We have an Employee Assistance Program. Maybe you should talk to them.”
I wanted to shout back, “No, you dumb ass! Having big life questions isn’t a disorder that needs to be cured.” Luckily, that was just my inside voice. 🙂
I even asked one of the staff members at the cardiac rehab program, “With all the folks coming through with life threatening heart disease, do you ever think about your own mortality and wonder how you want to spend your years?” The response was, “It really doesn’t affect me much.”
I think these folks are just glossing over. They’re skimming the surface.
Find Meaning
The truth I’ve found is that we don’t find significance and meaning by glossing over. We need to be willing to look deeper. When we gloss over, we don’t wrestle with our experiences. We miss even asking the big questions that we need to be asking.
Everyone has a deep need for their life to matter. We can only find this type of meaning by slowing down and looking more deeply at our life, our passions, and our strengths.
Why not take deeper look today and schedule a Life’s Impact Discovery Session at no cost by calling (916) 783-2622? We’ll discover what kind of impact you’re having now, and explore what kind of impact you want your life to have. Then we’ll make some recommendations.
