Running to Stay Still

Well, that's not accurate. I read the program guide that slides across the television screen. I scan the mail in order to shred the 6,382 credit card offers. I follow microwave instructions on boxes. And, when I eat too much, I read myself the riot act.

However, I'm too overloaded to read "just 'cause." (I did purchase a tome on how to organize myself; I just can't find the time to read it.)

So, please note with awe that I finished a book! (Insert triumphant angelic choir please.) Alas, the book is not a "fun book" transporting me to far away planets in future times, or dropping me deep into the exciting, glib dialogue of Spenser, my favorite PI. Unexcitingly enough, it is yet another guidebook on how to enhance one's career.

One would think that at my age, my livelihood would be solid as the castle keep. One would lose one's shirt should one wager on that. The average person will have four careers in his lifetime. Should you have only one, feel no pressure; I am the teeter to your totter. I have had enough vocations for you, your family, and several neighbors. Says my therapist; "You're creative and intelligent, so you get easily bored and constantly attempt new ventures." Sure, why not? It's more appealing than saying I cannot focus.

Hmm, where was I? Oh yes... book on sales. Sorry, lost focus...

Imparting desperately needed wisdom to "serial entrepreneurs," the author asserted, "A successful work day starts the night before." Stated alternatively, "If you wish to thrive, start today's work yesterday." Work therefore bleeds from day to day, lacking ending or beginning, void of all boundaries. Work is all, everything, constant, consuming. It is a throwback to "arbeit macht frei," placed at the entrance to concentration camps.

I want success; really I do Mr. Sales Book Author! I'd love to be one of the beautiful people concerned with whether I'll vacation in the south of France or not. Yet, in spite of that, a more powerful question begs: "At what price?"

We do not live to work; we work to live. Most of us are already working non-stop. I ponder: Might that be the problem, an endless treadmill with no off switch? Are we striving for impossible or unwanted definitions of someone else's success, sacrificing the now for a tomorrow we'll never achieve?

When I relax in the evening with my family, I, like so many, worry about money, focused not on the love around me but the lack I cannot see. A force of nature is required just to get to me to sit down, take a deep breath, and be with those that matter - in the present. Maybe THAT is success, not how many hours I can cram into my trade.

Lack of balance is a cause of poor health, triggering poor performance, lower productivity, and lack of balance. Without health, let's get real; nothing else matters.

Dear reader, raise your right hand; testify with me, "From here on out, I will remember I am a human being, not a human doing."

Now, take a deep, cleansing breath. Be oh so grateful that you can. And pass along THAT feeling when you return to your job.