Why are we always in a hurry...

ChrisLS

...our lives have to be lived at speed...tasks and jobs have to be done quickly...from the minute we are born we are being told to "hurry up", "get a move on" ... "are you quick"..."how many can you do in an hour"..."how much longer are you going to be?" ..."have you finished yet?"..."haven't you done that yet?"... and on and on...


...and then when it all goes wrong and comes crashing down, some arse says "well if you' d have taken your time, more haste, less speed, and all that, this wouldn't have happened" :x :roll:

inkyfingers

I'm leaving my job for precisely this reason.

Life is too short to spend it getting stressed out about a lot of things that aren't really important.

TheGreatGatsby

thats exactly what we did last year. We both jacked in high stress jobs to go and cook and bake and make peoples holidays the one they would remember. Yeah there was stress and all that but living in the mountains and basically being your own boss was one of th best things we've ever done.

Plus it gave us the get up and go and the idea to get ourselves our own cafe bike shop. A future plan but at least now when we're working crappy jbs we have a reason why.

Gats

vermooten

I agree with the general gist of your posts but there is the other side of it. It's good to get an adrenaline rush and achieve things which you thought were not possible. All the more true if you're not totally at ease with yourself, a person can get validation from living a high-stress life with expensive toys etc.

But obviously happiness does not come from trinkets (except expensive cycling gear of course). As David Lynch points out, it comes from deep within.

markyboy2005

sorry, I just don't have the time to respond to this

ColinJ

vermooten wrote:

As David Lynch points out, it comes from deep within.

There might be some interesting material to be found via that link but I always have a problem with anyone who flatters themself in the third person - "A collection of music and art inspired by the creative genius of David Lynch" for example :? If he'd written "I am a creative genius!" we would all think he was full of himself wouldn't we?

I had the same feeling when I visited Dave Lloyd's website. Just read this webpage and in your mind replace every he and his with I and my and see how that reads! Obviously a really talented cyclist of course. I was overtaken by him early on in the Pendle Pedal sportive this year and he was going like a train uphill... Still, a little more modesty might not hurt!

chrisjsmith

David Lynch sounds like an asshole. He sounds like a one-man sales pitch. He should be selling tupperware.

I've burned out a couple of times over high stress lifestyles. I am now immune to it!

The trick is to set your sights low and reward yourself for acheiving on that basis. Only then raise the bar. Incremental change is more manageable. If work is too stressful, ask for some time to "optimise". If they do not let you do that, move on. With the right organisation and optimisations, there is no such thing as a stressful job. Yesterday becomes next week, a 2 day task is an hour and escape time is always 5:30.

Practicing GTD helps stress as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gtd

ColinJ

inkyfingers wrote:

I'm leaving my job for precisely this reason.

Life is too short to spend it getting stressed out about a lot of things that aren't really important.

I gave up my job after an emotionally shattering visit to my dying father. The shock of seeing him like that made me realise how stressed I was and how my life was going in completely the wrong direction. It let me clearly see what was important and what wasn't. That job wasn't...

I've now replaced the stress of working for someone else with the stressful uncertainty of working for myself but at least I can now go out on my bike whenever I want. If the sun is shining during the day, I often switch my PC off and head out for a couple of hours. Of course I might then end up working at weekends when it is raining, or until late at night.

It remains to be seen if my efforts will pay off, but I feel better for trying. One of the reasons that I stuck my old job as long as I did was that I felt that it was expected of me, but after I gave it up, my mother told me that my by then late father hadn't understood why I'd carried on doing something that I obviously hated.

If there is anyone out there stuck in an awful job and you need a push to help you move on, here's one from me - go for it!!! Who Dares Wins and all that...

daniel_b

So what do you do now Colin?

Good motivational story there by the way

ColinJ

Daniel B wrote:

So what do you do now Colin?

Good motivational story there by the way

Apart from distracting myself on Bike Radar that is ? You didn't read my signature line (below) did you!

Ok, I'll answer your question. It's something that I feel passionate about, so please forgive the rather lengthy reply.

Apart from cycling, and watching TV, my main relaxation is playing games such as Scrabble, backgammon, and chess. I do crossword puzzles and got into Sudoku even before the papers got hold of it.

When I got my first computer, I started playing games on that. I tried action games, but I found they had the wrong effect on me - I got more stressed playing them, rather than chilling out. Then I found some really good puzzle games and they hit the spot. Even though Tetris could get a little hectic, I got so good at it that playing became like meditating - I could play it without thinking and just watched the pieces fall into place; it's hypnotic. It is still one of my favourite games - an elegantly simple idea, but very addictive. I wish that I'd thought of it!

It was about that time that I started having ideas for my own games but I never got round to actually developing them because there was always something else more pressing to do. Eventually, as described above, I realised that there I had to give it a go or I'd look back one day and wonder about what might have been. I'd seen my father at death's door, and it haunted me. I didn't want to end up like that, full of regret. I needed a way to quit the day job...

The booming housing market was kind to me and gave me a huge positive equity in my house so I remortgaged it and have been living off that money while working on my first game. Things are getting tight, but I'm close to finishing it. After that I'll have to knock up a website to host it. I aim to make money from a combination of advertising and monthly subscriptions. As an incentive for people to play the games, I'll offer prizes. They will start small, perhaps at about the £100 level but as the business grows, so will the value of the prizes.

Actually, I think that I'll run an introductory free-entry prize competition for BikeRadar members to try and gain some publicity for my business. I'd love to be able to offer a big prize like a decent bicycle or a cycling holiday, but I'll have to be realistic and wait until my cashflow is positive for that. Perhaps £100 worth of Wiggle or ProBikeKit vouchers to start with?

I am very frugal and don't drive, so I don't need a huge income.

Anyway - I do need to do some work now, or I'll never get this damn thing finished!

I'll run the competition in the New Year - keep your eyes open for further information.

vermooten

chrisjsmith wrote:

David Lynch sounds like an asshole. He sounds like a one-man sales pitch. He should be selling tupperware.

Shhhh! keep your voice down... Oh no too late...

jimmythecuckoo

Its all a state of mind pressure and stress and some people can opt out of it completely whereas others seem to be feeling it all the time.

I am sort of in the middle ground where I can retain sight of the bigger picture (and it isn't work!!) and avoid getting too grumpy. The only problem with that in most offices is that if you aren't moaning about how much work you have and how down you are the bosses keep chucking stuff at you.

I am seriously considering getting out of the office and going taking on my Dad's gardening business when he retires... But is that throwing my career away?