The drive to work in the morning can be either relaxing or stressful. Let me explain. From my home to my work, I have two options. I can take the road that cuts right through town and has 10 sets of traffic lights, or I can take the longer road in a big loop along the motorway which has only two sets of lights and is quite a bit faster.
However, taking the motorway means I am travelling fast and slow, speed up, brake, watch for queues ahead, watch for cars changing lanes with no indicators, all the while keeping one eye on the mirror to see what the idiot behind is doing. By the time I get to work I am stressed and ready to start the day shouting at people.
If I take the more direct route through town, I have many lights to navigate. I have discovered that the best way to do this is to take it easy, just drive steadily keeping at the same speed as the rest, not trying to weave around to get one space further up.
If I arrive at a set of lights and they are green, I treat it as a small win and have a little smile. If I arrive and they are red, then I stop, put on the handbrake and gently wait listening to the music or chat on the radio and pondering what delights wait for me today in the office.
This means that although I might have taken five minutes longer to reach the office, I arrive calm and happy and ready to give sweets to small children.
The above example is symptomatic of the choices we have in life.
Very often, when contemplating a future event or course of action, we have differing paths.
I discovered many years ago that if you take a bit of time to map out the paths, this could be a pros and cons list, or a financial spreadsheet, or whatever tool you use, taking the time helps you choose the best route to reach your goal.
It may well be that taking the more stressful way results in higher rewards and you deem that to be worth it, or you have reached a point in life where you have time to spare and so no need to put strain on your heart or nerves.
Whichever course you choose to a large extent is governed by age.
The younger generation is in a hurry to get everywhere, they want fast cars, fast promotion, fast rewards and don’t even notice the toes they have to step on to get there whereas the older generations have sort of been there done that! So, we are more patient and in less of a hurry, that’s why we buy SUVs instead of sports cars. Also, since we did all that hasty stuff in our youth our hearts can’t take the strain anymore and so we use our slow comfortable cars to take us to the pharmacy to get our cholesterol and blood pressure pills.
Take it easy ... you’ll get there in the end.
Jackie@JBeedie.com
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