I think that many of us are governed by some degree of protocol.

My wife, Amanda, works in a hospital. Every action is based on a precedence and implementation of a particular procedure which dictates what the next action should be. There are a lot of rules and regulations; strict adherence to these rules are expected. At the hospital, you will follow protocol or you will not be allowed to work there.

An old friend of mine worked in aircraft maintenance at Fed-Ex for over thirty years. He said that there is documented procedure for how to properly handle every situation. He told me that you cannot just grab a couple of guys and attempt to lift something or stand on a chair to use as a ladder- everything was to be done according to the laws which were put in place by the predecessors and current leaders of the company.

Protocol assumes that there are only a finite amount of possible occurrences and a set way of handling each of these events. It makes sense for a business to have these rules and regulations in place as it has an obligation to many different people to keep them safe and operate as efficiently and possible. However, protocol also keeps you operating within a narrow range of possibility and it is designed to keep things going in a particular direction.

In my personal life, when I feel that the monotony of my existence has become too boring or tedious, it is usually a good time to break protocol and invite in a new set of possibilities, problems and solutions. My personal life isn’t governed by protocol but habit and past experiences often causes me to believe that way. If standard operating procedure isn’t producing the desired effect, it’s time to shake things up and do things differently.

Peace, love and all things Beef related,

Beefcake