Last week, I stepped off a curb and nearly fell, as I had misjudged the height of the curb. That immediately seemed rather odd. As I became more curious, I realized that I was losing the vision in my right eye. The next day, it was worse. A few phone calls later I found myself preparing for an emergency surgery to repair a detached retina. Not exactly how I planned to spend Saturday night, but I considered it a great time to save my eyesight.

The surgery was long and successful. Recovery requires me to be face down for significant amounts of time. In fact, the first week I was down for most of the time. There are some great lessons in this experience which prompted my theme for this article on "Vision". Most of all, I have found myself really compromised by my reduced perceptual ability. The other amazing thing is the ability we humans have to adapt and to take control of our senses. I have spent a lot of time "turning up" my hearing, which I have now found to be responding nicely to help fill in the gaps. At any time, we can take a moment to consciously turn up the volume on our ears, or to increase the sensitivity of our feelings, just to be able to more appropriately respond to any situation.

So, take a moment, tune in your senses, and change your life.

Jeff Evans executive coach, The Gaian Group

Tags & Keywords : leadership development