Are you paying attention to life?

Yesterday I attended a management retreat. Mercy pulled all 500+ of its managers away for a day of training, introspection, and singing Kumbaya around the campfire. Touchy, feely stuff. Actually, I enjoy these retreats. I am forced to ignore the emails and focus on what is important rather than urgent. Sometimes, in the daily frenzy it's hard to tell the difference. The keynote speaker, a woman from the Baptist Healthcare Leadership Institute in Pensacola, FL, gave some useful food for thought about what it means to be a leader. I came away with a couple new ideas. In the course of her presentation, she used the video clip above to illustrate a point. If you haven't already watched, do so now. Try to get an accurate count of the number of times the people in white pass the ball. (Shhhh! If you've done this already don't spoil it!)

Were you surprised? I was! I was stunned that I could miss something so obvious! What's the lesson in this? Well, the lesson we were to take away from a leadership perspective is that we can get so focused on the tasks of our work that we miss the big picture. But I think there's a bigger life lesson here. Do you ever get so focused on the details of life - the softball practice schedule, the football games, Awana verses, what's for dinner, how will the bills get paid - that we completely miss the big picture? I know I do.