Are You Sick of Chaotic Life?

We see it all too often these days. People doing absurdly high levels of activity in their striving to either simply keep up with life or, in their pursuit of achievement, i.e. ambition. It’s being driven; up to and beyond our capability and capacity. It’s not always a personal choice—some are merely employed and have to operate this way due to poorly structured work systems—and even when it is personal choice, many are not even aware of the potential damage the chaotic life brings to one’s health and relationships with others, certainly loved ones. It’s folly personified to function in this ‘panicked’ state for an extended time.

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Many organisations in today’s society think that it is acceptable business practice to run short-staffed and load increasing pressure onto their staff. This is a conventional wisdom that believes what you can ‘get away with’ by skimping to the minimum is good. But it squeezes even more out of a tired and already stressed system. This thinking is not only disrespectful and anti-loving, it’s dangerous! Yet more and more organisations, executives, and senior managers are settling for this insanity; it’s becoming more the norm than the exception. It’s cowardly and hypocritical.

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I was in a McDonalds store recently when I got to see the effects of this style of management first hand. They were one staff member short and still the local management intended on running the operation as normal. Everyone was pulling that much more extra weight, and it had a dramatic effect on customer service. It’s okay to operate this way for one day, but do it week in, week out and it destroys the peace within. Most of us run our lives in this reckless fashion. Stress and anxiety are insidious; they attack and eat away at the fabric of our resilience, affecting our peace and creating a vicious cycle of ‘dis-ease’. Why do we allow this to happen?!!

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What if you could just say to the world—STOP! ‘World, deal with me on my terms—terms that consider and accept me, and the best I can diligently and realistically offer, and that’s it.’ This is not an “opt-out-of-life” strategy. It’s about the restoration of a fair balance. Try these things:

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- Take a ‘total rest’ day off at least once a month. Do nothing on this day;

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- Consider your values, goals, roles and priorities and say NO to other things that don’t align with these—this takes courage;

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- Skilfully direct your efforts and energy to those who really need you i.e. those you love; and,

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- Don’t allow unscrupulous employers (and other organisations) to unreasonably ‘load you up’.

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© Copyright 2008, Steven John Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.