Friday, July 02, 2004
Perspective
I was reading "The Seven Day Weekend" by Ricardo Semler earlier this week and he talked about stress. And it brought it home to me in a moment that my kids feel just as much stress as I do.
The great weights of responsibility that hang over us as adults, parents, pet-owners, business owners, whatever, seem to be heavier than ever they have been before in our lives. But is it simply that the problem staring us in the face right now always seems to be larger and more insurmountable than anything before.
In fact, given that we have over the years developed the capabilities to deal with challenges, my kids falling out with their friends, forgetting to take an assignment to school, or any one of the thousand things they have to do in a week, are every bit as stressful for them as a cashflow crisis is to me.
And the sleepless nights I'm going to spend wondering how I'm going to meet this month's payroll is no more important than the things my kids are potentially worrying about, or more to the point, neither of them is that big a deal and as soon as the crisis has passed I'll forget about my current problem as quickly and easily as they will.
It's a cliche I know (aren't most things on this blog) but I recall a friend saying to me years ago when I was faced with a seemingly impossible business problem "In ten years time you won't even be able to remember what the problem was". It goes without saying that I remembered his words but not the problem
Like my kids perhaps all I need is a hug and a cuddle and someone to say "Don't worry about it, it'll pass, everything's going to be alright". The sad thing for us adults is probably that my kids stand far more chance of that happening - even sadder, the reason for that is probably that they'll make or let it happen.
The great weights of responsibility that hang over us as adults, parents, pet-owners, business owners, whatever, seem to be heavier than ever they have been before in our lives. But is it simply that the problem staring us in the face right now always seems to be larger and more insurmountable than anything before.
In fact, given that we have over the years developed the capabilities to deal with challenges, my kids falling out with their friends, forgetting to take an assignment to school, or any one of the thousand things they have to do in a week, are every bit as stressful for them as a cashflow crisis is to me.
And the sleepless nights I'm going to spend wondering how I'm going to meet this month's payroll is no more important than the things my kids are potentially worrying about, or more to the point, neither of them is that big a deal and as soon as the crisis has passed I'll forget about my current problem as quickly and easily as they will.
It's a cliche I know (aren't most things on this blog) but I recall a friend saying to me years ago when I was faced with a seemingly impossible business problem "In ten years time you won't even be able to remember what the problem was". It goes without saying that I remembered his words but not the problem
Like my kids perhaps all I need is a hug and a cuddle and someone to say "Don't worry about it, it'll pass, everything's going to be alright". The sad thing for us adults is probably that my kids stand far more chance of that happening - even sadder, the reason for that is probably that they'll make or let it happen.
