Yesterday, after running a bunch of errands, I stopped to fill up my gas tank before going home.  I got out of the car, went through the usual round of 20 questions with the pump and started pumping my gas.  While it did it’s thing, I people watched… observing the people going in and out of the store and driving up and down the road.

When it finally reached it’s fill and the pump automatically shut off, I popped out of the zoned-out state I had been in, only to realize that I had been holding the handle down very awkwardly and had been basically pinching the tip of my finger the whole time.  As I observed the deep, red indentation in my finger and (finally) started to feel the pain, I wondered…

“How in the world did I just stand here for all that time and not realize I was hurting myself?”

What’s funny is, it’s not the first time I’ve done something like this either.

Like many women my age, I invested in one of those new-fangled curling irons a few years ago, where instead of the curling iron doing all of the work and holding your hair in place with a big ol’ clamp, you curl it around the wand manually with your hand.  This means by the time you get to the very tip of your hair, your fingers are about a millimeter away from the 300-some degree iron.

You know where this is going, don’t you?

Yes, a couple times, I have stood there and basically “cooked” my fingers for a good 3 or 4 seconds before I realized what I was doing.  Especially if it was in the back of my head, where I couldn’t see what I was doing very well.

Both times, I wondered, “Why didn’t I feel that right away and stop?  Or change how I was holding it?”

But as I stood at the gas station yesterday, I realized we all do this to ourselves a lot in life.  With a lot bigger things than a gas pump or curling iron.

Have you been in a situation before that was hurting you but you were oblivious to it?  Have you caught yourself doing something that was causing you pain, but you hadn’t even realized it for days?  Months or years?

Maybe you’ve been in a relationship that was toxic but you couldn’t see it… worked a job that was so stressful, it was detrimental to your health or just had a bad habit that you didn’t realize was taking a such a big toll on you.

Often, we become “blind” to the things in our own lives that need to change.  Continuing along, until one day, we suddenly feel the pain and realize we’ve been hurting for quite some time.

Sometimes it’s because we’re distracted like I was at the gas pump and too busy watching everyone else around us, to take a good look at our own life.  Or other times, it may be because we can’t see what we’re doing very well.  For example, being “blinded by love” in a bad relationship or in denial about how your health is suffering from your job because you enjoy the salary or the benefits.

But no matter how long it takes you to see it, the good news is it’s never too late to make a change.  Sure, you might still end up with a little bruise or a burn, but over time, those wounds will heal.

And no doubt, you’ll remember to “watch your fingers” the next time around.