I have gotten lots of email about how to obtain inner peace while still working in a cube. People think that because I am self employed that I have an advantage over them about this. Well my pal Julie Lerman emailed me the other day and hinted that she is taking on too many commitments. So that is where I will start.
Many people are too busy. The older you get the busier you get. Some people can’t even relax on vacation. My advice is that you should just relax a little. Leave work at work, just as you should leave play at play. Find something that you like to do every day. (For me it is riding my bike, running, swimming, lifting, etc). It make take you a while to find out what that is, be it reading romance novels, talking on the phone to distant friends, or even surfing porn on the internet, I don’t care. The first step to actually do it. If you can’t find two hours a day to do it, then you have your priorities all wrong, you are working too much, or something else. And these are not I will get up at 5am two hours, and preferable they are non-consecutive hours. (I gave this advice to Andy Catlin over a year ago and he still lives by it, and he is way smarter than me.) Start with 30 minuets if you are super busy. Then move to an hour, etc. If you protest to me and say “Steve I am super duper busy at the office, you don’t understand.” I have two things to say. Yes I do understand, I am super duper busy and I worked on Wall Street on the Y2K project, you know 100 hours a week. Second is that nobody on their deathbed said “I wish I spent more time doing the things that did not make me happy and were a low priority in my life.”
So after you get there the next step is easy. It is simple, live your dreams. (Well at least the best you could.)I have wanted to go to Mt. Everest since I was 7 years old. I finally did and when I got there a little voice in my head said “What were you waiting for?” Life is too short, live your dreams. No excuses, make it happen. If your dreams are super bold like mine (Climb Mount Everest), do something (like at least go the damn mountain) at least in the neighborhood. I also want to ride in the Tour de France. We all know that is not going to happen, but I do bike races locally against other amateurs at my level and one summer soon I am going to take the time off and follow the tour as a crazy spectator.
Ok, see you all on the other side…
