Everywhere I look I see people rushing through life. They rush to meetings and appointments and back to their offices again. They eat fast, drive fast, talk fast and make love fast. They rush to the seminar on meditation to learn how to relax and to the health club to rush through their workout. All this rushing to and fro is done in the name of progress, success and getting ahead. Each of us, according to statistics, gets about 75 years on this earth. That's 27,325 days give or take a few, to work, play, travel, grow, sleep, love and a whole host of misc. activities. Hurrying doesn't get you any more days and it gives you less. Less success, less time for what really matters in life and fewer accomplishments. Oh yes you might get allot done, but at what cost. With the continuing advances in technology and the increasing number of choices of how to spend your leisure, we are moment by moment bombarded with a multitude of options of how to spend one of these 39,348,000 minutes. One valuable lessen life has been teaching me, as I click of each succeeding minute towards my final one hundred days, is that the rush to achieve, accumulate, be, have, do and see is all in vain, if I am not at peace with myself and my world. Each of us has to take ourselves and our attitudes, beliefs, values, expectations, fears, hopes, dreams, frustrations and desires into each new day and activity. We can't hide from the fact that the clock and the calendar patiently yet persistently move us daily toward the time when we will be looking back on more time than is in front of us. Think for just a minute about this year that is approaching the half way point. Consider your career and your relationships. How many times have you sacrificed your health, growth, peace of mind, purpose in life and a relationship in any area of your life in your push to get ahead. Many people leave allot of broken dreams, promises and relationships in their wake as they relentlessly pursue their mystical unknown future. What's your hurry anyway? You'll never have it all, do it all, see it all, become it all or share it all in this lifetime. And I'll make you a promise. When you're life is over you will have some unfinished business in your career or some other area of your life. I love Peter McWilliams line in Wealth 101, "You can have anything in your life you want but you can't have everything, it's not that kind of world." Why not spend some time reflecting on the following ten questions. One. If you had only six months to live, how would you change your life? What decisions would you make, where would you live? What actions would you take? Who would you spend more time with? Where would you travel to? What would you want to accomplish? Who would you call? Who would you write to? What would you share with others? Two. Who or what is getting shortchanged in your life now? Three. If you could only accomplish one more thing before you die, what would it be? Only one. Four. What adjectives would you use to describe your life up to today? Five. If they wrote a book about your life, what would the title be? What is the title of the current chapter? All the previous chapters? Six. What is one thing you have left undone that it is too late to change? What one thing have you left undone that it is not too late to change? Seven. What three things can you do today to change the quality of your life? Eight. If you could start your life over, what changes would you make and why? Nine. Why are you in such a hurry? Ten. What would be the benefits in your life to slowing down and getting conscious as you move through all your present moments? Difficult questions? Hard answers? There are many more where these came from and they are all inside your head and heart. As you survey the horizon of the rest of your life, what do you see? The answers are all in your hands, my friend. |
