Yes, I know Guns-N-Roses wrote a song about this; and it was a particularly good song. BTW, GNR are one of my fav bands!

We rush around all of the time… from this to that to the other. It is all about ME, ME, ME. (well, and maybe stuff that we have to do for our family, work…)

BUT, do we stop and think about the people that we interact with… How is their day? Are they in a rush too?

When we ask, how are you, do we really slow down to take the time to “want” to know? Or is that just a formality and we don’t really care…

In my job, I work with a lot of international people. And I intentionally talk slower so that they can understand my Southern Accented English, and I also listen with intention, so that I can understand their English.

This morning, I was on a call with someone from Germany. My call was to help this person with a technical/ training issue. Now, I have an action-packed day for a Friday and I wanted to get on and off quickly.

However, when I got on the Teams call, I suddenly realized, that, I NEED to slow down. I NEED to be engaged with this person. So, for the first 15 minutes, we talked about the weather in Germany and here in Atlanta. We chatted about our week. Then and only then, did we proceed to the actual item that we came to discuss.

It sure made me feel connected to this person. And feeling connection, made me want to ensure that we solved his problem and that he knew that I cared.

I should apply this more often to my personal life. Patience…slower pace…listen…be present.

It really does matter after all. time is a gift and so is patience. I want to give more of those gifts, and receive them more fully because I have taken the time to be present.

Let’s all try this, even for a day! OH, and be patient with ourselves too!