As FOPs know oh-too-well, I go to the gym regularly and often.
It's become second nature; in fact, if I had better insurance and cared less about my fellow man, I could probably do my entire two-hour cardio and weight-training blindfolded.
Yet, I keep my eyes open and earlier this week, I watched with great interest as two newbies took to an exercise program for their very first time.
Now there are few things in life more intimidating than undertaking your first workout, and it showed with this pair. The oblivious grunters and sweaters surrounding them could've been from another planet given their unbridled indifference. The machines, barbells and dumbells, so familiar to me, were looked upon as obtuse scrap metal, or worse yet, devices of torture.
It was amazing to watch, and made me think back to how tough it was the first time I entered a gym, thinking, among many other things, "Oh jeez, I'm never gonna look like that!"
The Pow! point here is this--to the newbies, the gym offered up a world of Surprise. The feelings, the motions, the equipment, the people, the politics...all new, and never before experienced. It'll all change soon, and become part of that same ol' dull routine. But for this magic moment, albeit a scary one, everything is unknown.
So the next time you're called upon to create Surprise, don't see the world through your eyes. Put on a pair of virgin contact lenses and imagine seeing things the way someone would for the first time.
Your stale is someone else's fresh.