The Heart, at Work.
I felt like a total dumbass.
“She’s sharing her heart, and you’re responding with your head. You’re missing her. Slow down, and try again. This time from the heart…”
I sat there in silence, unsure of what to say next. My mind racing for words, looking for an answer.
My heart seemed inaccessible in that moment. As I’m sure my brain activity would have validated.
“Do you mind sharing again?” I stammered out, trying to find my own heart strings.
As my friend Matthew McConaughey (we’re friends in my mind) says, “There’s a giant autobahn between the head and the heart.”
It was a road that felt closed in that moment, not just giant.
But, as the heart does, when we give it space, it starts to warm. Thawing from its icy retreat.
The head and the heart are both wonderful, vital to the health of a relationship (in this instance above) and an organization.
I don’t know about you, but for me, it seems that the head components of a job or project are more often seen, discussed, and maybe even celebrated.
Productivity. Efficiency. Systems. Processes.
But, seeing the heart at work, in all its unhinged, messy potential, might be the string we need to play to do work we really connect to.
Even as awkwardly try to access it. Let’s not miss it.