Time To EXpand Your Toolkit
The handyman somewhat asleep is startled by the ringing of his business phone. After fumbling with the phone he finally resets his composure and takes down the address. Grabbing his toolkit he rushes out the door, in somewhat of a "superhero" fashion, hops in to his Chrysler hatchback and zooms towards his destination; eagerly anticipating to hear "That is a job well done".
It's a short drive, however with going to an area that he is unfamiliar with, he ends up missing the house at first. Instinct and pride kick in and finally, with much circling he finally does get there.
He leaps out the car, opens the trunk, grabs his trusty toolbox and trumps proudly towards the door. The owner welcomes him in and after the somewhat stiff but cordial greeting, he is escorted to the "problem areas"
There is:
- toilet that is backed-up
- a pipe that is leaking
- a creaky door
- a picture frame that is crooked
After the walk-through the owner of the house asks him, "Are you Able To Fix It?" to which the handyman beamed with pride, patting his toolbox as he responded with a "Absolutely, I have everything I need right here"
As the owner leaves him to start working he opens his toolbox, pulls out his tool and gets to work. After about 45 minutes of pounding, huffing, grunting and cursing under-his-breath, he lets out a final exhale packs up his toolbox and heads to the front door. As he is reaching for the doorknob the owner rushes to catch him so that she can say thanks. Startled by her sudden reappearance, the toolbox drops to the ground and everything inside falls out. He is obviously annoyed at this point and as he reaches down to put the only tool he brought (his trusty screwdriver) back in his toolkit, she innocently asks "So how does everything look? How much do I owe you?"
He lets out a sigh and says "Well what had happened was.." His response is suddenly interrupted by a large drop of water that falls right on on his forehead. Reflex causes them to both look up as the ceiling appears to swell...and in what seems to be a domino effect they both hear two sounds, only seconds apart, of the shattering of glass and the crash of a door .......
HERE IS THE LESSON FOLKS
You can't attack and resolve every situation using the same tool. Part of your maturation requires you to expand your toolkit. To not be so 1-dimensional, just living off your past success and a stagnant learning-process. We must be willing to equip and leverage the different tools, responses and perspectives that are most likely within our grasp
If we resolve PLUNGing policies, WRENCHing situations, RUSTY relationships and UNLEVEL perspectives with only a SCREWDRIVER, we will more than likely therefore SCREW things up.
You and I can be better spouses, leaders and humans if we wouldn't limit ourselves to approaching every situation, argument, misunderstanding and/or disaster with... say a SCREWdriver.. when what may really be needed is just a little oil