Why It's Important to Know Your Faucet

IT ONLY TOOK 3 SECONDS. I was out running errands this morning with a long list of things to-do in a constant loop in my head, mapping out my next few stops so that my time would be spent most efficiently. I stopped in to one of the public restrooms with this loop taking priority in my head space. I walked up to the sink, placed my hand under the automatic soap dispenser which immediately responded with that familiar whirring sound and foam soap filled my hand. I rubbed my hands together, and placed them under the faucet for the next phase of the automated process to continue. "If I go to the gym next, I could go update my address at GNC afterward, but I really need to remember to take the boxes to the recycling center this time…"

It took 3 seconds, but my attention was redirected to the fact that no water was running. Uuughhh I already have soap on my hands! I'm going to have to wave my hand in front of this thing, jump up and down, recite the last four digits of my social security number, pledge the life of my firstborn… and then I look down to start the annoying process of troubleshooting a dirty, filthy, STUPID, non-working automatic public restroom faucet.

This is not an automatic faucet.

Oh.

I shook my head as I chuckled at myself for my mistake.

As I flipped the right handle forward with the underside of my wrist I got to thinking: where else in my life do I stand, expectantly, in front of something or someone to behave in a way it or they were not designed to behave? At home, at work, there in the public restroom… I could quickly identify many situations where I have been frustrated in a similar way. With people for not responding, comprehending or reacting in a way they simply are not wired to. With certain situations for not working out the way I had expected. Even with my own self!

In Every. Single. One. of these situations it was clear that I was acting equally as unrealistically as standing in front of a manual faucet (like an idiot) expecting it to give me water without putting in the work and turning the handle.

Throughout the day as I drew parallels between this silly mistake I made and, in hindsight, equally silly mistakes I'd made in life, I decided that I am going to try to be more intentional in actually looking at the faucet in front of me.

All because of three seconds on a Saturday morning...  #lifelessons #iknowsomeofyoudontwashyourhands #everyoneknows