Getting out of the Rat Race!

Recently someone made the comment that there wasn’t enough hours in the day, that they felt they were in a rat race, on a tread mill and they couldn’t get off. As I thought about this I asked myself the question, “What has changed?” We don’t have any less time than Einstein or Churchill, and their lifetime achievements are world renown. We have more tools today to help us do our work, so why do we feel we can’t accomplish what we set out to do in the time we have?

I came to the conclusion that it has nothing to do with time; we have the same amount of time in a day for eternity. The real problem is how we think. We spend too much time worrying about time, what needs is to change how we think about time, work, duties, and life in general.

In a conversation with my son’s drama teacher some years ago, he made a profound statement, in reference to the rush that students seem to be in to graduate. He said, “It is not a race!” Think about that for a minute, that is a very true statement, you don’t get a prize for getting through life first. The real message is that our creator gave us the opportunity to savor life and enjoy it and enjoy every minute of it.

How much stuff we accumulate in a lifetime will not make one iota of difference in the end, we go out just like we came in. That is not to say that what we do with our lives should not make a contribution. What we accomplish makes our homes, community, country and world a better place to live. That is important but we don’t need to do it all in the next week.

Can you change your concept of time? Yes you can! I know from experience that today I no longer worry about how many hours there are in a day. I no longer feel that I am in the rat race. Neither you nor I are rats, we can change how we view ourselves in an instant.

These are ideas that I developed after reading “How to stop worrying and start living”, by Dale Carnegie.)

1. Live in day tight compartments. Another way of putting it is to live in the Now, in the present moment. What happened yesterday, or for that matter a moment ago is the past and should not be dwelled on and what happens tomorrow or in the future is the future and should be of no concern. Life becomes much easier when you stop worrying about what you did yesterday or what you are going to do tomorrow. There is a tremendous amount of supporting evidence to say that this works, you will find it in the Bible. Christ Jesus said, “Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.” Matt 8:22.

Sir William Osler, considered to be the father of modern medicine and the founder of John Hopkins Medical school, told the graduating class at Yale, “a man like myself who had been a professor at four universities and had written a popular book was supposed to have brains of a special quality.” He declared that that was untrue. He said that his intimate friends knew that his brains were “of the most mediocre character.” He went on to say, “that when he was a medical student in Montreal he was not a particularly great student, certainly not the brightest of the lot but what had made a difference in his life was this quote from Thomas Carlyle, “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.” Sir William Osler, a Canadian, became Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, when he died it took two volumes and 1446 pages to write his biography. What was the secret of his success? Dr. Osler said that it was living his life in day tight compartments. Just like a large ship that has air tight compartments that can be closed off if there is a leak, he focused on living in the now, closing off the compartment from yesterday or tomorrow and not worrying about the past or the future.

2. Next you need to stop worrying. Not an easy task for most of us but absolutely necessary for your personal sanity and your health. Worry is usually brought on by something that we have no control over. No matter how much we worry about it the outcome is not in our hands.

Here is a three-step method to deal with worry, a) Analyze the situation fearlessly and honestly and figure out what is the worst that could possibly happen as a result. b) after figuring out what was the worst that could possibly happen, reconcile yourself to accepting it, if necessary. c) devote the time and energy necessary to try and improve the worst that you have already accepted.

3. Seven rules that will help you stop worrying.
i) Keep busy, that will crowd out worry from your mind. Action is the best therapy.
ii) Don’t sweat the small stuff, and everything is small stuff. Don’t let the termites of life ruin your happiness.
iii) Use the law of averages, to outlaw your worries.
iv) Cooperate with the inevitable, recognize that some things are beyond your control and you cannot change them.
v) Put a “stop-loss” order on your worries. Decide just how much anxiety a thing may be worth and refuse to give it any more.
vi) Let the past bury its dead.
vii) Don’t saw sawdust.
(Excerpted from the book “How to stop worrying and start living by Dale Carnegie.)

4. Adjust you attitude. Develop a positive attitude, look for the best in others and expect the best for yourself.

5. Develop clearly defined goals. Write them down. Focus on achieving them.

6. Learn to meditate. Taking time to stop and just be quiet and clear your mind of all that is going on is essential to better health. When you do this you think less about what ails you and the less you think about it the less it will bother you. We live in an age when the number one killer of baby boomers is hypertension, most of which is self inflicted as we try to live by someone else’s rules and our mistaken belief that we have to be constantly doing in order to get ahead. Its time to get off the treadmill and recognize that taking control of life right now is a choice and you can make it.

These are some ideas that will help you can to make life a whole lot more fun and still accomplish everything you need to do each day. Time will not be as important as it once was, you have all the time you need, the same allotment that has existed for eternity. You can accomplish great things in life when you stop worrying about whether you will get it done today. Life in “Day tight compartments” Focus on the now. By doing this your life will become more centered, you will find the time to reflect on what you have accomplished and how you can achieve your life goals calmly without stress and strain.

One last point, you owe it to yourself to do this, it will prolong your life. Isn’t that what its all about? Canada Life’s recent mortality table says the average Canadian Male will live to 85 and average Canadian Female to age 87 (non smokers) that means that 50% will live even longer, perhaps to age 100. Which half are you going to be in?