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Pause, Then Make A Move

Katherine Dobbs, RVT, CVPM, PHR

This may be a sad reflection of my childhood, but one year I received as a gift from my mom a deck of playing cards and a book of 100 Games of Solitaire. I learned how to play many of them, but my favorite was still the good, old-fashioned version we all know so well, building those chains of alternating color in numerical order.

So when I got an iPod Touch, it wasn’t long before I added an “app” for solitaire. Now I’m addicted; after all, the only thing that slowed me down before was shuffling the cards! It sometimes amazes me that I can have this much fun playing a game that I lose more often then I win. Regardless of how the hand plays out, I just hit the “new game” button and I’m off again, no hard feelings. I can play the game pretty fast with this touch screen…but I have to remind myself every so often to stop running through the stack and search to see if I’ve missed any moves on the board. Often when I do this, I find a move that was sitting in plain sight while I was rushing to search the stack.

It occurs to me that life is a lot like solitaire; we get so busy rushing on to the next thing, we forget to stop and pause, look around, and see if there are any moves we can make in the moment. Maybe it’s the thrill of the chase, or the hope that we’ll catch a really big move next, so we miss the moves staring right at us. In our profession, this might look like:

• Missing the opportunity to smile at a coworker who is having a bad day
• Forgetting to ask for help, rather than just telling someone to get over here
• Rushing past a cat who is meowing at the front of the cage for a quick pet
• Being so focused on the task at hand that we avoid making eye contact with the client
• Expecting someone else to clean up our mess, when everyone is just as busy
• Leaving dirty dishes in the sink, waiting for our Mom to come along
• Walking a puppy around the back, but not going up front to share the fun
• Thinking our doctor knows he’s good, so we don’t see the need to give a compliment
• Watching the sunshine through the practice windows, rather than eating lunch outside
• Listening to everyone’s chaotic chatter, rather than putting on a little uplifting music
• Thinking it easier to send a preprinted card, instead of hand writing a personal message
• Being too much in a rush in the lobby to hold that door open for the client coming through
• Allowing tunnel vision to obscure our view of the older client carrying food to her car
• Focusing on the adults in the room, while ignoring the children looking up at you
• Thinking Career Day at school is only for doctors, and not veterinary technicians
• Letting Vet Tech Week go by unnoticed by the leadership team
• Letting any employee go home any day without saying “Thank You!”

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Pause, Then Make A Move

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