They say it happens to best of us but for me the struggle is very real and personal. The time when barista handover your to-go coffee leaving the task of putting that lid to you. Or grabbing a cup of tasteless yet much needed drink from your office’s coffee machine and then spending eternity to seal it with that lid. At this point half of you (if you are reading) must be thinking ‘Oh common! It’s nothing but a first-word problem’ but may be some of you empathize, ‘I can feel your pain’ 🤭
Now the fun part. When I asked ChatGPT about it, it spat out very specific steps to get it right: Align the Sip Hole, Press Firmly, Twist & Snap, Listen for the Click. 😬 Alright, so I didn’t actually know about the twisting part but maybe during my battle to close it I might be doing it unknowingly. Also, the ‘click’ is not true for all cups.
Now let’s address the elephant in the room – The REAL challenge. I don’t think it’s the lid or the cup (it can be?). So today finally I spent few minutes analysing the situation. I was distracted.
It’s true, distraction can make simple tasks feel trickier than they are and sometime you have to focus on that one thing. Good thing is once that cup is ready to go, it’ll help me refocus even more 😎.
Alright so I was distracted and therefore finding it difficult to put that lid in place. The curiosity remained – what’s that thing that has so much power over me that I can’t focus for few seconds. The answer was the anxiety of being “watched” 👀 What if someone saw me fumbling with a lid, would they judge me? I realized most people around me were too busy with their own world to notice. And if I happen to be with someone during that time, they generally admire my patience more than I realize.
The lid here truly represented my ‘perceived vulnerability’ and the idea of “sealing” things neatly in life. The lesson here for me was embracing imperfection and patience. Let’s see if it gets better next time