A lovely place for a stroll, somewhere to refresh the senses and simply to calm down.
How many people do you know who are not agitated by what is happening to them in their lives and by what they are trying to do? Know some? Good. They have much to teach. We all have inherent tendencies and temperaments and can't necessarily emulate how others live their lives, but we can take a leaf out of their books.
I'm not talking about excitement and being full of energy for projects but about agitation and stress, feeling pushed, pulled and driven.
Time to take a walk and, like the water in this stretch of river, to let life settle a little.
Someone I know with a steady temperament and a voice guaranteed to reduce agitation, and who speaks with intelligent clarity is David Hyner, one of the contributors to Good Question! For Good Question Day on October 10th he's giving the gift of an audio download, 'How Not to Be the Richest Man in the Graveyard.'.
Tip of the day: download David's audio recording to your I pod and listen to it somewhere just as nice as this calm reflecting river.
When feeling more calm it is easier to distinguish between positive, energising excitement - what Timothy Ferriss calls 'eustress' in 'The 4-Hour Work Week' (see my bookcase over there) and distress, agitation, pushing and pulling. Taking time to calm down starts to diminuish distress. You can only do your best and you can steadily take steps to reduce agitation as you distinguish it and deal with it.
Distinguishing agitation first and then dealing with it. This is a good mantra for calmness. In fact even lifestyle design has a calming effect as you have complete control over your life and there is little scope for frustrations etc. http://www.timferriss.com/ has great advice on lifestyle design.
Posted by: Eva Williams | October 12, 2007 at 07:10
I agree Eva, that control over one's life is so importqant in feeling at ease with things. It's a topic I'm thinking about at the moment in the context of coaching/mentoring/helping others. On the one hand there's seeking and finding good advice and on the other there is strengthening 'My Honest Judgement' as Joe Armstrong calls it in his Chapter in Good Question! - which is 'Questions Should Come with a Government Health Warning'- I think I'll be writing more about this so thank you so much for the prompt.And please do comment more :-) Judy
Posted by: Judy | October 13, 2007 at 08:58