PREVENT MEDIOCRITY: SIT IN A WINDOW SEAT

(Photo: 2composers)
You can know a lot about a person by the type of plane seat they pick.

The people that deliberately pick a window seat are different from people that pick an aisle seat. An aisle seat is about comfort, ease, and familiarity. A window seat is about discovery and adventure. And just like every adventure, there is a price, a “cost of admission” to the views. If you are in a window seat and you have to use the restroom or get something out of the overhead compartment, you have to inconvenience everyone in your row to get out. In a window seat, you are also sandwiched between the immobile wall and another person and so your legs do not have as much freedom as they do in an aisle seat. Worst of all, if you are in a hurry, a window seat is problematic because it takes you a little longer to get out of the plane. You never know how many time-pressured people are going to rush in front of you before you can even get into the aisle and remove your bags.

Every time I have the chance to pick an aisle seat or a window seat, I always think about these benefits of an aisle seat. I always think about the tempting comfort and familiarity of sitting in the aisle. I think about how great it would be to be able to get off the plane quickly if I’m sitting in the aisle and about how relaxing it would be to spread out my legs in the aisle. But then the inevitable happens: I think about all the things I will see if I sit in a window seat. I think about unlimited views, setting suns, and ocean coast lines. I think about discovery and adventure, and then I make the only choice I can logically make: I pick the window seat.

Human beings crave comfort. We want the easy way out. We enjoy the path of least resistance. However, taking this path too often will condition us into a state of lethargy and complacency. I take the window seat for more reasons than just the view. I take the window seat because I don’t want to condition myself to accept complacency. I want to stoke the fires of adventure, the fires of curiosity, by deliberately sacrificing a little comfort for a little adventure. The day that I become complacent in my work is the day I find something else to work on, because the fruit of complacency is mediocrity. Taking a window seat is one small way to prevent the onset of mediocrity and to encourage passion and adventure.

Life is too short to take short to take an aisle seat. Trade a little comfort for a little adventure, and you may be amazed by how over-rated that “comfort” actually is. I know I will remember the views of Philadelphia at sunset a lot longer than I will remember the stiff legs from being crammed in the window seat.