We just packed the kids off to their first day of school, and my wife and I shared a wordless, knowing exhale. We did it. The summer was fun, but all things must change. That’s what this post is about -> having a long-term strategy
What else is changing? What isn’t? The school calendar is a huge driver of people’s lives. Even if you are not a parent, you will feel the aftershocks of the new school year jolting your calendar. Your parenting colleagues, friends, co-workers and employees will be laboring to navigate the waves. This means non-parents will be, too. Times of change can cause stress, because we try to rush, we try to get more done under strain. If our goal is to reduce stress, then this is the opposite of we should do. Stress is a natural part of change, and it feeds on time-pressure. Slowing down relieves stress; it starves stress. But slowing down can be the hardest thing to do.
Quick pivot, but I’ll bring it back. Know something else that people are stressed about? Game of Thrones ended their season last Friday, so you may see a few more weepy folks than usual. As I look at the challenges that the GoT characters deal with I see a lot of characters dealing with stress.
Winter is coming. (It’s here now.) Stress feeding on time.
We need to work together to stop the Queen before it’s too late! Stress feeding on time.
The white walkers are coming! Stress feeding on time.
You know who never looks stressed? The White Walkers. Man, they’re chill (snarf). They’re dealing with a major change, aren’t they? They’ve been asleep under the ice for a millennium, and then they started walking. They’re still walking. No stress. Time is not a factor to the undead. They are not invincible, just timeless.
I don’t think that you can ‘out-strategize’ a white walker. The undead have a great long-term focus!
When you have a long-term focus, you can cut across the daily ripples of life more easily. It provides a framework and a perspective. It keeps you out of the foamy, chaotic morass of daily trivia by providing you with a greater plan to follow.
Now, we certainly don’t want to become mindless zombies; that’s not the point at all. Humans can INDIVIDUALLY define the improved, future state they want, build a plan to get there, and execute the steps smartly.
What long-term goals are you building toward?
Images (C) HBO.