A Lesson from Shaving Cream

I had minor surgery and my left hand was bandaged so all my fingers and hand were covered in one huge bandage. That forced me to make some changes in my routines. Shaving was one of those habitual behaviors that require a small adjustment. There is a big lesson in that adjustment. Let me explain.

One of my values is Stewardship. That means using all the resources available to me in the best ways possible. For a long time I was aware that I was wasting shaving cream when I shaved in the morning. Just squirted too much out! But I kept doing it the same way as always.

Having my hand bandaged forced me to change that habit and try a new way. Guess what? The new way squirted half as much. One can of shaving cream will last me twice as long. What it the lesson?

Most of our thinking and actions result from habits we form and use. We rarely question those habits and just take for granted that they serve us well. Mostly they are effective but sometimes there are little changes we can make that can accumulate and result in dramatic improvements. Finding those changes requires that we examine the beliefs, thoughts, and actions very consciously to determine if there are better ways of getting the results we want. It requires courage and risk to try new ways of acting and thinking.

Waiting until an event outside ourselves forces us to change is much more stressful than conducting that examination process early and initiating improvements on your own time schedule. There is a quote that captures this lesson, “An unexamined life is not worth living” by Socrates.

What is the shaving cream lesson? Regularly examine how you think and do things to identify better way of working and living. Then, with courage and a little risk, make changes and discover better ways of working and living. I did! Will you?