Focus on what matters rather than being distracted by what doesn’t!

This morning I experienced something that took me back, in a flash, over two decades. What I experienced this morning was not material to the story. It’s the memory it triggered that I’ll tell you about and the lesson I got from it.

I remembered sitting on an uncomfortable seat in a cold airy auditorium, wondering if the money I spent on the ticket that got me there was wasted. The audience was not what I expected. They didn’t look like I expected they should. They dressed too casually, wearing tatty tracksuits or shorts and T-shirts, and caps or beanies – who does that?

The speaker we had gone to listen to was introduced to great applause and excitement. She walked up to the podium, and then it all went wrong for me.

Her opening words and introduction were delivered like bursts from a semi-automatic weapon. Drrrrr pause Drrrrr pause Drrrrr… A friend I was attending the talk with whispered in my ear “what language is she speaking” with a little giggle. And that was the end for me. I spent the better part of the presentation picking away at how this world leading intellect was speaking. How she was delivering her massage so badly. I wasn’t listening to her message.

To be clear, she was speaking English, with a different accent, but she was, to be fair, completely understandable. I had not come to listen to an orator deliver a talk on the fine art of public speaking. I came to listen and learn from a respected, international authority. So why was I being picky about her way of talking?

Thinking back, my frame of mind was wrong from the start. I should have expected value from the money spent on the ticket and from being at the event. I should have accepted that people who want to learn often do so in their most casual, comfortable dress code. But most importantly, I should have listened to the message this person had travelled across the world to share with us.

Some time in, I got over myself and settled in to listen to the message, which gave me insight into technology trends and developments that were being worked on and possible scenarios on how people’s lives could be transformed with tech, and appliances and homes could be controlled remotely. I learned about the importance of embracing tech, selectively, as a tool to improve my life experience and not to substitute for it.

I missed a chunk of the background content and the value I lost in the ticket price was all on me! I bought her book and an audio cassette recording of her presentation. 1) So that I could listen to the message properly and 2) to pass it on to friends who had an interest in the subject.

I catch myself often, when my brain starts to focus on people’s idiosyncrasies or the ticks and habits that may irritate me, and I try to connect with them and their message in any given situation.

You see, it is more important to get the message and learn, than to judge how the message is delivered and learn nothing!