Ever Second Guessed a Second Guess?

It was a typical weekend morning when I was out and about running errands. I was walking into  one of my most favorite stores (Target) when a lady pulled up beside me in her car. Normally this would have caught me off guard (I’m not always as aware of my surroundings as I should be!) and made me a little suspicious but for some reason I felt ok.

This lady was just asking for directions on how to get to the freeway. Easy enough, right? It struck me as a little odd though since you can practically see the freeway from where we were and she would’ve had to have driven right by it to get in the parking lot.

So I proceeded to give her directions. As I was giving her directions I could tell she wasn’t fully grasping what I was telling her. I tried to simplify even more. “Just remember right, left, left, then you’ll be on the freeway,” I told her. She nodded, drove off, and I went upon my merry shopping (I was at Target, y’know).

But of course, this is not the end of the story. Now I don’t know if my new acquaintance ever made it to the freeway based on my simplified directions, but my inner voice walked in and started badgering me…could I have done more/something else/something different??? My first second guess.

As I walked through the store, it struck me that I should have gotten in my car and told her to follow me to the freeway entrance. I wasn’t in a big rush and it wouldn’t have taken all that long. So that was it, I should have escorted her to the freeway. Ok, that’s good. Next time, I’ll think of that. Shopping commenced.

Later on that evening, my new acquaintance popped back into my mind with my friend Ivey (aka inner voice). My earlier solution just didn’t quite seem right. As I dissected the situation even more, I realized she seemed either distracted, distraught, or just not in a state to be driving.

Would I have been out of line to ask her if she was ok? Or just asked a few questions to better understand her emotional state? I don’t think so, especially if she truly would’ve been better off not driving. My second second guess.

At that point there was nothing else I could do. The situation had passed and hopefully my new acquaintance made it to her destination. I asked myself these questions to close the event: Was I kind and responsible in this situation? Yes. Could I have done more? Probably. Will I pay better attention to my inner voice next time? Most definitely. Will you now please stop beating yourself up about this and go to sleep?? Ok. Good night Ivey.

So what did I learn from this? It’s ok to second guess yourself (or even third or fourth guess yourself). Just try to get to the root of the situation and learn from your thought processes. Sometimes Ivey doesn’t speak up too loudly, but I should try to grasp why she shows up when she does.

I’m sure this won’t be the last we hear from her either…