Today on Maniac Mondays we've been wondering about time...how little of it there often is and how to make the most of it...and if we don't will it all run out? Or more so are we caught in the time trap of life daily repeating routine cyclic tasks to a bitter end?! We started to get really maniacal about it and was about to let out the laugh when we decided to restrain ourselves less we become like the March Hare and Mad Hatter and become true maniacs! So we then began to contemplate the March Hare and his obsession with time. And was he obsessed with it alone or was it the Mad Hatter or was it both of them? So we went to the web of things to research it and came up with another blog to befriend this week...so along with our new and blossoming friendship with the Aussies over on Boy Girl Modern World as they contemplate work/life balance...we met this Texan based (we think) chick over on Write Right! She seems to have the full scoop on this whole 'Murdering the Time' business.
According to Write Right's blog post which we think hits the nail on the head and so we quote her:
"If the Hatter and the March Hare seem mad, perhaps it’s because we forget how relatable they are. How often do we get stuck in a routine, doing the same thing and writing the same words day after day after day? We become tired of that routine. We complain about it. Sometimes, we do something about it. We find a way to make our routine fun again. We make changes, sometimes drastic ones, to it. We add a new activity to our lives to balance the tedium. We ask for input regarding our writing. Other times, we don’t do anything. We decide to drink the same tea, to eat the same desserts, to use the same serving ware, and to have the same, pointless conversations. Isn’t that mad? Isn’t that “murdering the time”?"
Well and yes Write Right it's exactly what we think even though we ourselves must hardly 'write right'...what with our over use of the '...' and our generally unpunctuated rambling roving rants we have to say 'write not right' as we may we have struck a common point of view with you here! And now because we are just as mad as the Hatter and arguably then madder than the March Hare we will pause for a moment for this jig with them as we have done in the past on this blog:
Now continuing...
You see if we get stuck in this time trap of sorts just repeating and doing the same things over and over well even if we follow the Zen like practice of living in the moment and being fully present in every second of it...well wouldn't we still be stuck? Well unless we had some sort of overall plan or map of some sorts?
So even if you don't want to see it as being stuck in tea time all the time...if you see it as you go to work every day and do this and that can't you still of course be stuck?
You see...and we came to thinking about it in work itself just last Friday really...now yes if we are all Zen like and focus on the moment and be present fully in it we are bound to do our best...our very utmost best at whatever task at hand! So we're not knocking the very Zeness of it yet! But if we keep doing things the same way and doing the same things aren't we perhaps possibly not moving forward in a way too? I mean if we don't climb up and look at the top of trees to see the whole forest from time to time...how are we to know where we are going? Or how the overall plan looks? Or how our best trys shape things overall? Indeed what our best looks like? And who decides where we are to be going in the first place?
Our boss? The manager? The CEO?
And in our personal life...ourselves? our parents? our children? our spouse? our friends? our pets even?
And how do we know? And do we know where we must go?
Should we join the guys over on the UCP desk who've not blogged since Easter and say God!?
But the thing is...we need to know...we need to have a bigger plan...and as much we've always hated the famous question:
"Where do you see yourself in the next five years?"
We have to admit it...you have to have a general plan!
You see you can't control the outcomes in life...indeed as the Desiderata states:
"And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
However we still have to have some kind of general plan...then work in the Zen like way...focussing on every little daily task and caught up in the very moment of it...but at the end of every day or at least every week or every quarter or every year even we have to review...climb up at the top of the trees and see how our forest has grown...based on us doing the best we can in every moment...this is how the forest looks. It may not be how we want it to look like and so then we have to decide how we want to go from there...do we want to try to re-shape it again to how we wanted it to look originally or now based on our experiences do we have a different idea of how our forest should look?
Or do we want to step out of the forest altogether and start over in a new forest?
And can we even do that? Maybe yes or maybe no but that time is when you have to access this.
And the thing is we have to do it in our careers or work life as well as our personal life and in the work/life balance scheme of things as a whole. For in the end of it really...career or work is just one part of our overall life!
It's kinda tough...isn't it? This whole work/life balance thing and more so this whole life thing!
There are several work plan maps out there and ways to structure it and no doubt things like meditation, creative visualization and yep even joining the guys over on the UCP desk to engage in prayer that can help us come up with the overall master plan of this thing call life!
But in the end of it all it always comes back to what we were saying in agreement with Daniel Pink on our mid August Maniac Mondays posting- Choosing a Few Things:
It's all about what is our Drive?!
And according to Daniel Pink the two questions that can change your life:
"If your life at its end had to be summarised in one sentence what would you want it to be?"
"Was I better today than yesterday?"
(so I guess in the case of Daniel Pink he is suggesting a daily climb up to the top of the trees to look at the condition of your forest)
But hey it's Maniac Mondays and we're no experts just a bunch of maniacs ourselves so let's go dance a jig with the Mad Hatter and March Hare now because you know what Mr. Daniel Pink? It's oh so much fun!
And join us later this week as we do two blog posts this week...as we continue to investigate time...in this case in the metaphysical sense and wonder if if it exists at all? Or can we like the Mad Hatter murder time and in this case he never comes back to rule over us? Is Father time really a lie after all? Can we transcend his boundaries? We think we are so into time now that it may even become an upcoming series to give to the UCP desk to work on! So join us then...but for now let's dance! :)
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