Recently I attended a three day trade show and walked past the bar in the Moynihan Train Station in Manhattan twice each day.
It’s a beautiful bar that attracts a professional crowd at happy hour.
I pondered stopping there for a quick drink before catching my train home each day. On the third and final day, I strongly considered it, to celebrate a successful event.
Then, standing outside the bar looking in, I realized:
It wasn’t only that I wanted the drink.
I also wanted to be seen as the person having the drink by others.
This realization immediately shifted my mindset, and I resumed my commute.
Whenever you can detach and observe yourself, and see how your are thinking or behaving, you essentially remove the ‘ego-colored’ glasses that filter so much.
In this specific example, there was a signal: my own hesitation at the very beginning.
I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I go in? Should I not?
Right there, that moment of confusion & debate was the call.
The alert from my soul that something was missing or obscured.
Matt Fried 