A philosopher once said that life is in you today and you are constantly creating your own tomorrow. Kind of puts things in perspective. You are not creating yesterday; you are done with that. Right this very second you are living through the consequences of your creations in the past. If you feel your life could stand a bit of improvement in some areas, well, let’s start creating our tomorrow more efficiently and skillfully so we like it in the future when we live it!
Life at its best is an over-the-ramparts charge; life is action; life is brilliant triumphs and bitter defeats. Obviously life can be stressful at times. We all run into this. So let’s talk about stress. First of all, stress is not necessarily and exclusively a medical condition and cannot be effectively handled with drugs.
Stress comes in the wake of bad habits and inabilities in life. Stress indicates overwhelm; it is a sign of inability and ineffectiveness in resolving life problems. People’s abilities vary but sooner or later we all reach our own stress threshold where life is just TOO MUCH and the game of life is no longer fun. Therefore, we could all improve the level of our effectiveness in life and thus push our stress threshold ever higher.
Therefore, if you want to reduce stress, let’s be more effective in the art of living. Let’s be more responsible, skillful and competent in resolving our problems. Right now, today, you are fully capable of handling your stress and anxiety; you can improve your financial situation, regain control over seemingly hopeless situations, make your business more profitable and life more interesting; you can find love and joy in your personal relationships and yes, you CAN be happy!
Happiness is just a condition of enjoyment of life caused by reaching goals that you set for yourself. You cannot expect to enjoy life without any goals at all or without any possibility of their attainment.
If your life is filled with stress and anxiety please try these simple pieces of advice that will immediately help you. The first one is a general extroversion step.
1. Take daily 30-minute walks. Walks twice a day are twice as effective. Just look around, noticing various specific objects situated far away from you and close by, up above and under your feet. Simply walk and pay attention to the houses, cars, airplanes, lamp posts, people’s clothing and other things. Make yourself notice these things.
2. Put together a list—in writing—of the projects you started but did not complete. This is the key point, definitely do it today. Any action always has its END, an exact moment when the action is fully completed. That completion point is not vague or relative; it is not a state of mind; it is very simple. An action is completed when you do not have to go back to it. No explanations or justifications are needed; it is FINISHED and there is just nothing more to say. It is DONE. Let us say, you are making a cup of coffee. You went through all the needed actions and here it is—a steaming cup of brew in your hand and the coffeemaker is clean and ready for future use. There is just nothing else to be done on this, to qualify or explain so your attention is not stuck on that action anymore. If any of your actions do not fit this description, they are simply not finished. Write down all unfinished actions. Your attention is stuck on each of these actions creating the sense of impending doom. Simply make a list of your incomplete actions, large and small, and you will immediately calm down and your general disposition toward life will improve.
3. Now take that list and find in it one simple action that you could complete right now. Complete that action right now. Complete as many SEPARATE and UNFINISHED actions as possible RIGHT NOW. Sort out other unfinished actions, plan out how and when and what it is you need to have to get them completed. But try to complete as many simple things as possible today.
Listen, enough procrastinating already! Clean up your desk. Complete that term paper. Finish that project at work TODAY! Get your love-life in order already. Throw the insecurities out the window, call him and tell him you love him. Or, if applicable, eject the bastard out of your life forever! Or if you are a man, get a grip on your inner child, or whatever you can comfortably grip, and give her that engagement ring already! But of course, first you may have to complete some actions to make enough money to buy a diamond ring! So plan things out and start completing actions according to your plan. Do not keep thinking about it. You already did it for a long time and it didn’t get you anywhere. Just do it!
Start with something simple. Definitely clean up any portion of your room or your house and—this is important—put things in order—“order” being defined as neat and logical arrangement of things where you can easily find everything. Put your desk or kitchen counter in order; put the clothes and shoes in your closet in order; clean up your car. You will feel much better long before you get halfway down the list!
4. Formulate your goals for a year or two. What would you like to accomplish in that time period? Not what somebody said you should. What do YOU want? Put together a plan and start doing any actions on it right now. Actually do things. None of it is a mental exercise. Set only attainable goals for yourself, such as quitting smoking, becoming a vegetarian or completing a project of some sort. Finding a job is an attainable goal. So is taking a European cruise with your husband. This goal is fully attainable even if at this point in time you have no money and no husband! To a sufficient degree this is just a matter of planning and completing actions. Please realize that if you are right now at point A and you know exactly the location of point B, and you start moving toward it and will continue moving toward it, you WILL eventually reach it!
Do these steps. You will see as you go along that your stress and anxiety turn into the feeling of self-confidence and being in control over your life. You will become more successful in life; you will find yourself being lucky more often and your life will bring a lot more happiness to you and people around you.
You do not have to work hard. Just be effective!
- Michael Priv
Michael Priv was born in the Soviet Ukraine; he escaped to the USA at the age of 19. A Civil Engineer by education and a Construction Business Consultant by trade, for many years he has been an avid student of Eastern philosophies, especially Tao and Buddhism—particularly as they apply to the resolution of everyday problems. Michael has recently published his first novel Friends of Fred. See Michael’s short stories and novels at http://www.ThetaWrite.com.
E-mail Mr. Priv at michaelpriv@secretlaboratory.org.
