October 8th 2009
Dream Walking
We live in a world where everything is at our finger tips. A world in which we can have all of our needs attended to with the click of a mouse, a text, phone call or a pill. We are granted immediate satisfaction if we so seek, through countless avenues. Kids are growing up faster than ever and the world is getting smaller. This makes it very difficult to be satisfied with what we have now. There is always the new iPhone about to come out, or the new BMW or a new pop up restaurant featuring one of the most celebrated chefs ever (Selfridges). If we are sick, overweight, tired or hungry there is a pill for us to pop which promises to fix us with little to no effort on our part. This seems to have created a culture of dissatisfaction and delusion.
No one seems to be happy with the now. We can only focus on the then. If I only have this, then I will be happy. If I had this amount of money, then I would be able to do what I want. If only I was thinner, then I would have an amazing boyfriend. I think we all get the picture here. But few of us are willing to look at what we have now and either be satisfied with it or work to change the path we are on which would in turn grant us all those things we lust after. Over the desk of my business coach and my finance director there is a poster that says “If you don’t like your life, you can change it.” Now, it’s very simple rhetoric but also very powerful. It often appears that we think we are helpless to our situation. A number amongst many, one drop of the ocean in the sea, etc. But the reality is very different. I’ve been reading that poster for quite a few months now and I believe it. However, I also believe that very few other people believe it.
Are we ever going to be 100% satisfied and happy with what we have, where we are, who we are, what we look like? Perhaps not, as we are constantly surrounded by images of what life could be like. But I just want to be 100% satisfied with the fact that what I am doing now is going to get me all those thens. If I am not 100% satisfied then I know that I can change my life.
For many of us, impatience sets in quickly. One of the biggest things I have had to come to terms with over the past year is that I can’t run before I can walk. I want to run. Running is fun and I enjoy life at full speed. However, I am never going to be the best runner if I haven’t bothered to learn how to walk first. I am not going to know where I am running to, if I haven’t learned how to read directions. I watch it occur in all levels of employment, from the juniors right up to director level. We are all so eager to get to the then, that we lose focus on the now. But losing focus on the now means that it is unlikely we will get to where we want to be anytime soon. This focus is much harder than it seems.
The world operates at 1,000 miles per minute and when I was 22 I could not understand why I could not start at the top of a company. My Mom had to kindly explain to me, that regardless of my education and background, the world owed me nothing and I would be starting at the bottom. When I did in fact start at the bottom of a prominent acting agency in Beverly Hills, and I mean receptionist bottom not even mail room bottom, I promptly on my 3rd day told them that I would be leaving for lunch and not returning. In my head, I did not go to Brown to answer phones for people who went to the University of Hawaii. (Yes I am an intellectual snob) But looking back, I understand now that had I been truly interested in whatever it was I was doing and there to learn, then I would’ve started anywhere just to gain the experience.
I still want to run before I can walk and I still operate at 100 miles per minute, but I have also learned some tough lessons about the pecking order in life and business. The evolution of mankind from swimming to walking on all fours to walking upright to running went that way for a reason. So that means no matter how hard we try, it will always be impossible to run before we can walk.
I like the Fish Philosophy:
Choose you attitude. EVERY DAY.
Make someone's day.
Play.
Be Present.
Works for me. You don't need all the "thens" because most of them are a materialistic waste of time. You get them and "then" what?
Ask the fish mongers at Pike's Place Market if they are happy.
Posted by: John Y. Kwan, DDS | 10/09/2009 at 01:16 AM