“I’m from South Africa,” the young girl I met in a restaurant in Sydney told me, “I’ll continue working here as a waitress, and once I’ve saved enough money, I’ll take off again.”
“Take off where?” I asked, intrigued.
“Oh, anywhere, backpacking, see the world,” she replied.
“What do you do when the money runs out?” I wanted to know.
“Oh, easy, get another job I guess, and once I’ve saved some more money, I’ll hit the road again.”
“Such a ‘bo chap’, cavalier attitude about work,” I thought to myself as I observed the sangfroid of this young lady.
That conversation took place at least 15 years ago, and thinking back, I think that young lady has got her thinking right.
Too many of us need a “real” job to define who we are – which explains why job losses can be so devastating to some – and too many of us take our jobs way too seriously – to the extent that our work lives jeopardize our relationships with our loved ones.
Not only that, in our busyness, we don’’t even have time to “smell the flowers” so to speak and to focus on things that really matter. And before you know it, life has passed you by, the years are gone, people die, things change and you are left only with memories and regrets.
So remember life is short, know what is important, know what your priorities are, and if you don’t have time to smell the flowers, try to at least stop to smell the coffee.
If you don’t you’ll probably miss little things like the fact that today is actually 09.09.09.
No big frigging deal.
Just a nice number.
But if you are rushing around like a mouse on a thread wheel you wouldn’t have noticed that.