Win Today

Sitting in the airport waiting for a connection flight can give you the time to people watch and to contemplate. The people watching is what I enjoy most about the waiting, but through the time to contemplate I can't help but recognize an energy of purpose in the air among all of the travelers moving through their journey.  As I see it, purpose has a way of making our lives much more focused as it summons our innate desire to be relevant.  What's more, when purpose arrives, an efficiency of sorts tends to infect our entire process so that our decisions become prioritized.

When you enter an airport terminal you are on the clock. Unlike the world outside of the terminal that may wait for you, you know that your departing or connecting flight is on a schedule that you have no influence over. The airlines can change it if they deem it necessary, but you are powerless.  Since the clock is on, travelers move with much more focus. This focus lends itself to a more structured approach to how they conduct themselves. You see it in the way they pack, they way they walk, and even the way they talk.

The experienced traveler knows how to pack lightly, and the inexperienced traveler does not. However, both have packed with purpose. The experienced traveler has done this enough times to know what is necessary for the mission to be completed. The inexperienced traveler doesn't know what awaits him or her, so they over-pack so that they can be abundantly prepared for their great purpose. Even more, when you watch travelers walk through an airport, their is a competitor's lean in most every one's pace. Body language communicates that "I have a place to go." Most every large airport that I have been in now has those conveyor belt type of walk-ways. Or, as I like to call them, the speed walker's turbo boost. I personally like to get on, stand, and let the walkway do the work. Yet, a lot of travelers like to use it as their turbo boost to get ahead of the game. In doing so, I've had plenty of those types give me the mad dog look while mumbling a word or two of disgust while brisking by me standing, as if I am using the walk-way illegally.

 Like everyone else who has done their share of traveling I have witnessed the ugly side, whereby the emotionless desk attendant appears to take great personal pleasure in announcing that the flight will be delayed or canceled. But, in it all, you can observe the impact of what purpose will do for our human performance. We produce activity everyday. By definition, activity either takes on a purposeful or purposeless aim (A. Rosenblueth, N. Wiener and J. Bigelow Philosophy of Science Vol. 10, No. 1 Jan., 1943). Therefore, we find that purposeful activities appear to accomplish goals, or at the very least are conducive to growth. Purposeless activities, keep us very busy, but aren't promoting any achievement. Which, if we are honest with ourselves, is really what we all want...are we progressing towards relevance or not? Opportunities are taking off all around us each day, and like a flight schedule, they won't wait on us.

Win Today!

Victor