Invisible Oil

The Invisible Oil That Keeps Everything Running

There’s a quiet kind of brilliance that often goes unnoticed—the energy it takes to keep things running smoothly without drama, without noise. The invisible oil that keeps the machine humming.

We’re wired to notice the cracks, the bugs, the chaos. When something breaks, it grabs our full attention. We rush to fix, to solve, to rescue. The applause is loudest for the firefighter—but rarely for the architect who built a fireproof system.

But here’s the truth: most of my day works just fine. The calls that connect. The systems that load. The people who show up. The decisions made without a fuss. Yet, I find myself obsessing over that tiny 10% that doesn’t work, giving it disproportionate weight in my head and heart.

So lately, I’ve made a shift.

I pause when I see an all-green dashboard. I take a moment to appreciate the quiet victories—the teams that planned well, the minds that thought ahead, the people who cared deeply before it became a customer issue. The ones who solve problems so early, you’d never know there was one to begin with.

We need to celebrate the working, not just the fixing.

Take a moment today to notice what’s working in your life—your health, your routines, your relationships, your team, your tools. It’s often not perfect, but it’s still working. And that’s worth noticing.

It’s not just a shift in attention. It’s a shift in gratitude.