Ever have one of ‘those’ days? You know what I mean: you have a plan for your day, you have heaps to do, client appointments booked all day, huge pile of paperwork, deadlines. Sound familiar? And then whammo – something happens that puts the brakes on all of it big time. This happened to me today in the most unusual form of my son falling ill whilst at School. Now without sounding biased, my son is probably one of the most robust kids I have ever come across. I could quite literally count the amount of days he has been sick in his life on one hand. Actually none. He generally will get sick for a few hours and then that’s it. Back to his normal bouncy self. Which is what I am expecting today. He’s in bed right now but I am fully anticipating that he will come downstairs sometime this afternoon with his colour back and wanting to play.
So what do you do, say, feel when this sort of thing happens to you? Do you have a giant temper tantrum like a 4 year old and stomp your foot about how unfair it is and what in God’s green earth are you going to do? Or are you calm, serene, flexible, peaceful and just allow it. Obviously, there is no right or wrong approach. The only ‘right’ approach is whatever feels good to you.
This little thing called life happens doesn’t it? Some might call it something else ((chuckle)) but life essentially throws curve balls at us from time to time. Stuff we are not necessarily prepared for. And that is just part of the journey of life. There are some matters in this life that we simply cannot control, and probably shouldn’t either. As I have mentioned in previous posts, life is all about ebbs and flows. If you didn’t acknowledge them, it would be impossible to appreciate life when it flows perfectly well. We need the contrast. It’s simply just not possible to focus our attention on what we do want until we have acknowledged what we do not want. If we didn’t know what we did not want, how could we possibly move forth in the direction that we choose? And most philosophies and religions teach this fundamental idea of contrast. It’s around us constantly. Dark and light. Good and bad. God and Devil. Yin and yang. Girl and boy. Looking at it this way it’s easy to see why contrast is essential. Once cannot exist without the other. I guess that’s why we hear about opposites attracting.
Don’t feel that I am about to lecture you on what the best approach is in this regard. After observing others, however, these are merely my observations – nothing more. The biggest thing I see in society today is ‘busyness’. Even stay-at-home-Mums are saying how busy they are. And that is in no way any form of a denigration. Have you noticed how many people you ask these days “hey, how are you” and the immediate and unadulterated reply is “busy, so busy”. People are just cramming more and more and more into their lives, but at what expense? I’ve seen this over and over and over again. People getting married – only half of those on the invitation list turn up on the day. Christmas BBQ – hardly anyone shows. Reunions – almost impossible to organize. Conflicting priorities with most folks these days are producing challenges in co-ordinating activities like never before. And we just don’t have time for interruptions. We become rather inflexible to any change to our timetable.
Is there a cure for this incessant ‘busyness’. Of course. Always be prepared. Despite the fact I had to re-schedule 3 appointments today and one of those was quite literally with 1 minutes’ notice, it wasn’t the end of the world. And anyone that is not understanding to kids’ getting sick from time to time is probably not really someone you really want on your database now is it? Stuff happens. Now I’m not saying to prepare for the best and expect the worst. Quite the opposite really. Always expect the best and prepare for the best too. Sometimes unscheduled distractions and interruptions are a welcome break in pace to a day. For me, I can now focus on getting through the pile of paperwork that has been growing now that I have some clear time on my calendar for today so I don’t intend on wasting a single second. I turned it into a positive. And I did that with my thoughts. I could have been really annoyed at the inconvenience, but the fact of the matter is that appointments can ALWAYS be re-scheduled. You are not royalty – the world is not going to stop for you. The world will continue to turn and go on with or without you.
So be flexible and always expect those curve balls. But instead of treating them as though they are a negative annoyance in your life, welcome them. Because they could invariably uncover opportunities to do and experience things that maybe otherwise you might not necessarily have seen by keeping an insane pace. Share your experiences with this and what worked best for you in handling distractions and interruptions.
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