By Terry Carter, Editor
For decades I have spent all of my waking hours invested in 1-of-3 basic departments: Work time, family time and fitness/relaxation time.
But I have missed out on the perhaps the most important department of all. Stay tuned.
As an editor, my commitment to excellence often required 60-hour work weeks. However 100-hour, 7-day marathons became a regular occurrence for special projects. Like most of you, I put my head down and endured the time away from my family, my relaxation and workouts.
At other times, swimming, baseball/softball, golf or tennis became temporary focal points. Golf, in particular, has always held a special place in my heart. I recall practicing for six months every night and on weekends in preparation for a trip to California, which included a family wedding and 18 holes for family championship golf at the legendary Pebble Beach Golf Links in Monterrey.
Thirty rounds of golf that year didn’t help against the majesty of Pebble Beach. I shot 92 with my older brother and dad on that rare trip.
I have won awards at work, and I have been let go from jobs I enjoyed. I am grateful for all of the loving, happy times with my family, but I have also cried, prayed in times of loss and fear.
No life is perfect. Not mine. Not yours. But I’ve found that something is still missing. And I am proud to say I am not done looking for answers, however, I found one diamond in the rough that now powers me through my days.
My discovery is a combination of vital steps I had nearly eliminated from my busy life. These new steps require me to slow down, meditate on my decisions in a very quiet place, communicate with God in a deeper way, and to decide to make an impact on others each day. Charitable contributions have also been significant in this department of my life.
The key for change is finding a quiet place to unwind and really breathe, to unleash the creative juices that are not encouraged by most jobs, most homes. It gives you time to hear God’s message for you. That quiet space gives you and I a chance to recover our best qualities — the ones undesired by bosses, big cities, rule setters and the frustrated, angry society that we likely live in 5-7 days a week.
Once I found this quiet space, this time of peace, I understood why people move to the country, to beautiful, peaceful islands because they too need less stress, more joy in their days. Being a low-key personality, I don’t get upset by much. Yet stress wears us down little by little. The accumulation is enough to defeat all but the very best warriors on our planet.
Most give up and submit to a life with little relaxation, little creativity, little love and little fun. We take vacations when we are told to take them, and it’s usually when our stress levels are so high that that week off is mandatory for our sanity.
We follow the rules because, well, someone wrote those rules. And the rules are implied laws telling us how to be good or efficient, right? So before we leave on an overdue vacation, we rush to organize, delegate and complete things ahead of time so it will seem like we are not really gone. The hope is that we can enjoy the few days or weeks in another place.
Trouble is, our phone, tablet or laptop go with us on these vacations, which means the office can always reach us. And that adds stress to our stress-free vacation. Counter-productive. Same as the rules we follow so diligently. They are not helping you to be happier, more creative, enjoy more fun in your life. Most rules, like filling out triplicate paperwork, make life easier for someone else — and require you to grind your pen into the paper a bit harder than ever before.
You see where this is going because you live this life, just as I did. But there is a better way.
The quiet space time added to my life has given thousands of Americans a chance to imagine a world far better than what we have today. No, this is not a political rant. It’s a cultural awareness brief. Living as we do today is slowing killing us. You can take the obvious steps of eating better and exercising regularly, but stress is what contributes to nearly a million deaths a year.
Get some perspective before rejecting this article. Study yoga, meditation and the lifestyle of the “New Rich” (read The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris) for viable concepts that can ease your mind, reduce your many stressors while improving what is most important to humans: Unconditional love, financial success, peace, fun, adventures, contribution and time together.
Someone I love dearly found peace by moving to a beautiful island. Another bought land outside of a small, East Texas town. A third retired early to volunteer, teaching Junior Achievement and giving to others.
Without a quiet place to imagine a better world, I would likely to angry, frustrated with others today. But my contentment with everyone has arrived thanks to self evaluation, asking tough questions of myself and consistently walking beyond the comfort zone that was my downfall. Today I am walking with leaders and helping those who have ears and hunger to improve.
Merry Christmas to each of you. I love you for who you are today and for who you can be in 2019.
3foradime 