Blowing the whistle on myself

I am approaching life with patience

This afternoon my eldest daughter had soccer practice. The coach was held up in traffic so he called me and asked that I run things until he arrived. I very quickly discovered a new found level of appreciation for whistles and how difficult it is to wrangle the energy and attention of a group of six-year-old girls. 

I  had them split up and form 2 lines where one girl would pass from the corner of the goal box to a team-mate in front of the goal who would try to score. A problem with this idea was that the goal did not have a net to stop the ball and just beyond the field drops down a small hill and the grass gives way to a thickly covered area of sticker burrs. After they had kicked the ball into the weeds twice I had not yet figured out that it may not be a good idea to keep doing that. I soon discovered  that would be an oversight I would regret. 

The next attempt at the goal was kicked wide and as I rushed down the hill after the ball attempting to coral it before it reached the edge of the grass I reached forward and stumbled. As I put my hands out to brace my fall I landed right in a patch of stickers. I lifted my hands up and they were already bleeding with roughly a dozen burrs sticking out of my skin. I quickly began removing them but 3 had already broken off and lodged slivers under the skin. The coach arrived not long after than and I spent the rest of practice digging out the slivers from my hands and band-aiding the cuts. 

This is not the first situation where after I have run into a complication I ignore the potential problems and continue on with what I have decided I want to do. I falsely assume that if I am aware of the danger I can avoid it. But as is often the case once things start rolling it can easily get away from me. If I then rush in quickly in an attempt to fix things I may then find myself falling right into trouble. 

As I learn to approach situations with patience I can see when things are not working or out of my control. I will know my limits and instead of rushing in I will carefully assess each problem that arises and work through it patiently.