I had eye surgery only days before writing this piece.
It wasn’t a laser surgery designed to improve my eyesight, like so many of these surgeries are. Instead it was a surgery designed to prevent me from making my eyesight worse. (If you want to know more about the type of laser surgery I had then just search the term “laser iridotomy” and you’ll be on your way.)
Lasers are precise in nature and when the surgeon was spending the minute or so on my eyes I thought about how if he was off his mark but one degree then there was a chance that the surgery would do more harm than good. Just one degree.
I think the choices you make throughout the day can follow the same pattern. One degree in one direction or another can send you where you want to go or divert you down a path that you’ll have to work your way back from to get forward momentum again. If you put parameters in place to help make those choices simpler, then the chances of the one degree going against you is lower. If you don’t, then the chances go the other way.
My friend Marli Williams spoke of this at an event I spoke at and used a sailing metaphor to drive that point home. Whether you look at it through the lens of a laser beam or the bow of a boat, the story is still the same. One degree can make a difference.
And like both you do have more control over what that difference can be…good or bad.
