You know that old Woody Allen (Yes, him again!) quote that goes something like, "All the things our parents told us were good for us were really bad---red meat, sunshine, college." Well, our parents may have been wrong about some things, but they weren't wrong about everything! I remember my father's old adage: "Keep busy, Dolly" (He used to call me and my sister "Dolly.")
Whenever I heard him say this, I would think to myself: "Poor Dad. He thinks busy-ness is the most important thing in life. Maybe he needs something more meaningful in his life." Actually, my dad was a genius at business and busy-ness too. And as I get older, I think about what he meant when he said those words.
I do find, when my time isn't structured and/or I'm not as productive, I have a tendency to take my emotional temperature more often: How am I feeling now? And now? How about now? This is not a good thing for me; I tend to accentuate the negative when I do this and underestimate the positive.
Too much time on my hands, for me, generally means there are things I am avoiding that, like them or not, must be done. And I find when I can accomplish something that makes my work a little easier, my desk a little cleaner, my bills a little paid-er--I feel pretty good about that. These tasks are not going to win me the Nobel Prize or put me on the cover of Time Magazine; but, when I clean the clutter of my life, I have more room for the fun and the creative.
Without the messy stuff that seems to take up so much time, I have more time to be in the now of my life. Ekhardt Tolle proposes that this is all we really have in life: The Now. Too often, I know, I can get caught up in re-living or regretting the past or I can focus on worrying about a future that may never turn out that way at all. After not living the moment that has now passed, I might, again, now in another Present Moment, be focused on the moment I was just not in--thus, never really living in my life at all.
Those of us, like me, who aren't naturally inclined to the organizational, need tools-- and here are some of mine. A dirty little secret? I don't think so....I have an organizer. Yup, an actual person, who has developed that part of her brain that I, somehow, have not. She comes over, maybe once or twice a month and helps me file the files; gather the little receipts that will become my tax deductions; makes sure my bills are paid and I haven't missed any checks made out to me in the mail. All my bills, my junk mail, and my gazillion Veronica's Secret Catalogs are often dumped in a large laundry basket of papers I've accumulated by the time my organizer gets here.
Another tool I have used lately is called the "Mastermind Group." It's one or more people that chat or get together on a regular basis to focus only on their goals and on the steps we are each taking to achieve those goals. This really works! It helps me to realize and refine goals I have in my life, see where I am taking small steps in my life, and when I do not take steps towards the goals I say I want--to look at: 1. What might be standing in the way? 2. How I can make that step more do-able? or 3. Do I really want to manifest that goal?
I find that, yes, there are losses in life, as one grows older. But one thing I find I do gain is wisdom. No, I don't know everything; but experience can sometimes be a pretty reliable teacher. These days when some young people (and older people can do this too!) come across as if they know everything, I think of the saying that goes: "I'm too old to know everything." I guess when I didn't "get" my father's advice I was one of those young people. Now, I get it, Dad. Now, I get it.
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