In our latest installment of Five Things We Can Learn From Everyday Objects we are going to look at something that we pass by multiple times per day. This is something that we often overlook, yet it decides if our commute to work is a breeze or if it takes just a little bit longer than normal.
I’m talking about traffic lights. You know, the things you curse when you hit 7 red lights in a row. Turns out there are actually a few things we can learn from those things.
Five Things We Can Learn From Traffic Lights
1. There Are Times To Go
Green means go. There has to be a green light because without it, no one would get anywhere.
When you are chasing your dream, sometimes the hardest part will be to just go. It can be scary to go. Who knows where we will end up once we start going. But we have to go. Without it, no one would get anywhere.
2. There Are Times To Stop
As much as we would love it, we can’t get a green light 100% of the time. If everyone just decided to go, go, go, the streets would be chaos. There has to be a red light because sometimes we just have to stop.
In a story I wrote last month, I looked at the similarities between running and chasing your dream. One of the most common mistakes runners (and dreamers) make is that they don’t know when to stop. They try to run through pain and eventually end up on the sidelines. In our grind-it-out-world, it can seem like failure to admit we need a break. But sometimes the best option is to stop.
3. There Are Times To Speed Up/Slow Down
Depending on how much lead is in your foot, a yellow light means two different things. Some people think it means to slow down and some feel the yellow light is an indicator to step on the gas. Either way, we recognize that it is time to change our pace.
In life, we can all benefit from a change in pace. Maybe you have been slugging along and you need a kick in the butt. Or maybe you’ve been going 100 miles per hour at work for weeks and you need to slow down and spend time with your kids. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to vary your speeds.
4. Sometimes People Will Just Ignore You
We’ve all done it. We see the light is clearly yellow but we blow right through it anyway. Maybe we justify it by saying that we didn’t think we could stop in time, but who are we kidding? Traffic lights have our best interest in mind, but sometimes we just choose to ignore them.
Parents who have teenagers probably know this lesson well. Sometimes people will just ignore you. That can be a hard concept to grasp. Even when you have their best interest in mind, not everyone is going to listen to you. You can’t please all the people all the time. And once you accept that you will be able to move on.
5. You Need To Differentiate Yourself
Traffic lights work because they are different. One is red, one is yellow and one is green. They are all different and we know what each means. It would probably have been easier to just find three red lights but traffic would be a mess if all three lights were the same color. No one would know when to stop or when to go.
In your line of work, one great way to make an impact is to differentiate yourself from the rest of the crowd. You can stand out and make a difference just by having a unique trait or opinion. If you office already has a red light or a green light, why not try to be the yellow light?
Photo credit: Wikipedia
