Focus

While I was cooking dinner, the Rabbit came into the kitchen and collected a pair of scissors. He made some modifications to his hut, then I lost track of what he was doing. I caught sight of several bits of paper and the stapler, and I told him how to spell "home" and "work".

After a good 15–20 minutes, he came in looking upset. "I've stuffed it up", he said. He'd made a book and written "Rabbit's homework" on the cover, but he had done it so that either the text was upside-down or the staple was at the bottom.Trying to be helpful, I suggested several solutions: using the book with the staple at the bottom, changing the name to "Rabbit's upside-down homework", etc — overly complicated ideas which Rabbit swiftly let me know would NOT DO AT ALL.

Tapping into my Better Self (International Women's Day at work again), I stopped what I was doing and got down to his level. "Well," I said, "let's look at all the things you've achieved. You found some paper, you stapled it together and you wrote a cover. I'm sure you can solve this problem."

His face brightened immediately and he said, "Of course! I'll just take the staple out and put it in the other end."

Sometimes it's the smallest things.