Time to Check the Meter

I opened my day-timer this morning and saw that today was the day to check my hydro meter at the cottage and call in the reading to Hydro One. That got me thinking and worrying whether there were other meters or things that I needed to be checking and had either missed the deadline or worst still, completely forgotten about. I started flipping through my day-timer, scanning the wall calendar in the kitchen, rifling through my note book and finally searching for errant post-it notes. Nothing jumped out at me, so I did what I always do when in doubt ... I made myself a good cup of tea. Everything was fine.

But the exercise of searching got me thinking about the almost endless list of "meters" we check everyday. We check our emails (how many?); our Facebook (how many friends now?); our blogs (how many people are following?); our answering machine (did they call back?); bank accounts and credit card statements (what did I buy and how much is left?). Then we go even deeper to the height of the laundry pile, the length of the grass in the yard, the depth of the dust layer on the furniture, and even on really bad days, to the expiry date on what ever that strange thing is in the back of the fridge!

And then I remembered an adage that sprang out of the Personal Growth Seminars and self-help books of the 1980's .... "Give yourself a check-up from the neck up"! A catchy little phrase to remind us to check the most important meter of all. To take a reading of our personal meter. How are you doing ...no really; how are you doing? Not what, or when or even necessarily why, but how?

I realized at that point that the only time that I ask myself the "how" question is when I'm under a great deal of stress or in some form of crisis and I need to know how much further I think I can go, or how much longer I can last. After another good strong cup of tea I came to the conclusion that I was missing the full power and beauty of the question "how are you doing?" Taking the time and effort to answer the question should be a priority.

And so I am committed to reading my own meter once a month. I am committed to taking a deep breath and really truly and honestly answering the question. But I'm curious about the rest of you out there. Can you tell me what meters you are reading in your life and which one is the most important to you?