I have never been fast.

Due to a heart murmur, in my youth, I was instructed not to run, and I did not care for the activity, anyway!

However, upon entering the world of work, at the tender age of 17, it quickly dawned on me that I was going to have to speed up to succeed.

While working at Essex International factory, making wire harnesses of Chrysler trucks, I saw that I had to become fast enough to perform my duties on the carrousel that held the harness, that we were constructing, when it came to my station in the circle.

I noticed that if I drank a cup, or two, of coffee on my ten minute break and thirty minute lunch, that I could accomplish the job duties with ease.  In fact I got so fast that the lead person on the carrousel called the time study man to ‘watch my smoke!’

He commented that he had never seen a person perform the job that I was doing so quickly…and he subsequently sped up the line!

While working at the university I, regularly, was compelled to turn up my speed of job performance…especially during staffing shortages…which were unending.

Modern life is much like a 24/7 marathon!

I was a manager in my department for twenty-five years…and I was never out of touch!

I have been called on every holiday and anniversary and birthday…as well as on cruises.

I received work related telephone calls when I was in the theatre on the weekends!

When you consider the, extreme demands of employment coupled with the demands of parenthood…it can quickly become overwhelming!

I remember trying to find time to mow the grass!

Then…the expenses of our life, such as housing and food and clothes and education and sports, or other activities, for our children…cause many parents to take a second job or to work, unceasing, overtime…to make ends meet.

Most adults require eight to ten hours of sleep per night…and in reality get five to six.

It is possible for your life to be happening all around you…while you are too tired to either appreciate or notice it!

There is much to be said for a minimalist philosophy of life.

None of us can do everything…and certainly not everything at once!

It is possible to have a faux life of work…and believe that it is the genuine article.

I have known many people that identified with their work-place much more readily than their home.  They knew the minute intricacies of their career…and they had a defined position in their shop…and their closest friends were their colleagues!

When you place the work obsessed person in their home with their husband/wife/partner and their children…they are in a foreign country.

The question is…life for work…or is work for life?

So many of the most beautiful components of life…will not pay you a cent!

Does reading a novel…from cover to cover…sound like a luxury?

Does travel to somewhere that you have never been…seem impossible to conceive?

Does writing…simply for the joy of the process…seem like a plan for retirement?

Being able to think…and taking the time to enjoy the activity fully…is a life enhancing activity!

Many years ago, I determined that I was going to think for myself and not live my life to fulfill, another person’s, agenda!

Whether it is your faith…or your employment…or your financial decisions…or your diet…moderation is the key to success!

We humans are not constructed for constant frenetic activity.

We need, ample, time for; contemplation and meditation and moderation… to put our ideas to a mental test… and ensure their validity and benefit for our lives.