You are what you habitually do.

I’m not alone in taking a book/my Amazon Kindle to the doctors/dentists/airport or somewhere else we’ve come to expect delays.

But what about other times? What about queues? What about unexpected delays?

Howard Rheingold, a bit of a hero of mine, tweeted this yesterday:

I try to see underheads ahead of me in line who fumble for their checkooks, change, as opportunities for mindfulness in the moment …so when I am delayed by circumstances beyond my control, I try to ask myself what I might not be noticing in my environment.

Instead of seeing unexpected delays as being the result of some malevolent ethereal force it’s a much better plan to have an idea of what can fill that time. Some suggestions:

• People-watching (why do people do what they do?)
• Writing down/expanding upon thoughts in a notebook
• Talking to other people (i.e. practising striking-up conversation)
• Pattern-spotting (how many x are there? what does that remind me of?)

Why not checking email/Twitter/other technological things?

You are what you habitually do. (Aristotle)

I’m aiming to become more creative, aware of my surroundings and reflective. Are you?