Check Your Lens

I might have first heard that instruction as a part of a television ad. It did not cause me to remember whatever was being advertised. It did capture my attention as a great way to prepare my mind to greet a day.

 

Think with me.

 

“Check your lens.” It is short and easy to remember.  As most of us have noticed, a photographer must first set the lens, and the result can then be constant throughout the day.

 

For example: Initially setting your lens to connect with and care about others and their ideas could take you through a day:

  • Stopping for coffee on the way to work. As a friend has recommended, make the time to actually go into the facility, make eye contact, and greet someone who works there. Check your lens and take the opportunity to speak, to share a smile, to make a connection – even a brief one.
  • Arriving at work. Check your lens and be the first to smile and greet others. Ask questions and listen to others’ replies.
  • Participating in a meeting. Remind yourself that talking more than others likely makes it seem that others’ ideas are less important than yours. Check your lens. Listen. Ask for clarification. Encourage. Help assure everyone’s ideas are heard.
  • Greeting your family at home. Once again, check you lens. Be the first to extend a genuine warm greeting. Listen. Your connecting (i.e., caring) lens will help you hear not only a report of activities but also the sense of achievement, the frustrations or the curiosities behind those activities. Those underlying emotions will provide fruit for caring conversation.

 

It seems a marketer’s shame that I don’t remember the product behind this reminder. Nonetheless, I am grateful for its value in framing a day.

 

How might you set your lens and check it throughout a day to make the most of your time?