"I'm sorry for the inconvenience," she said. "This is more than just an inconvenience," I replied. A minute later, the phone conversation ended, and I was thrust into emergency mode. It wasn't what I would consider to be a true emergency. It was not a situation that could not have been helped - it certainly could have been. Because someone did not do their job well, I was left to pay the consequences. The next day, my morning routine that prevents me from having a lupus flare would be taken away and it was too late to make an adjustment. I knew my body well enough to know the pain and fatigue that would certainly follow, the work I would possibly be unable to do as a result (impacting my income), and the expensive medical procedures that would probably be needed to recover.
The issue is not the inconvenience. The issue is that the consequences I have to pay are completely disproportionate to the size of the person's mistake.
And so here is the lesson I hope you take from this: Consider your actions. When you have a job to do, do it well. There are consequences when you don't. You may never see them. You may not be the one to whom those consequences come. But they will come and someone will have to pay them. And the price they pay may not be worth the size of your mistake. There are enough troubles in the world. Don't be the cause of suffering. There are so many better things to cause. Cause productivity. Cause synergy. Cause joy. Cause relief. Cause good things.
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