“We suffer more in imagination than reality”
Seneca
There is an old parable of a farmer whose horse ran away. Some friends came to check on him, “We are sorry about the bad luck of your horse running away.”
The farmer replied, “Good luck, bad luck, who knows?”
A few weeks later the farmer’s horse returned with ten more horses following it.
The friends returned, “What great luck you now have 11 horses!”
“Good luck, bad luck, who knows?” the farmer replied
A few days later the farmer’s son fell off a horse and broke his leg.
The same friends came by to check, “So sorry about your son’s bad luck, breaking his leg.”
“Good luck, bad luck, who knows?” the farmer once again replied
Soon a war broke out in the region and the military came through to draft all able bodied young men into the army. The farmer’s son with his broken leg was not able to be drafted and was left at home.
The friends once again returned, “Your son has great luck, he was not drafted!”
“Good luck, bad luck, who knows?” the farmer said.
Dread Defined
We dread going into work.
We dread going to the dentist.
We dread that meeting and uncomfortable conversation.
The actual definition dread is “to anticipate with great apprehension or fear”. Dread is basically telling yourself that “yes something bad is probably going to happen.”
A self-fulfilling prophecy
The problem is that we avoid enjoying the present while we worry about the future
Live in the middle
If you allow yourself to ride the wave of emotion during the day it can be disorienting.
You get a compliment from your boss about a project – High
You get an angry email from an employee- Low
You get your favorite coffee at break – High
You have crippling indigestion from the coffee- Low
You have a meeting and people are saying great things about your performance- High
You get three more projects from said meeting- Low
If you try to let your emotions track all of these swings it’s exhausting
Sometimes the best approach is to just be.
It just is
Just remember when you are lying awake battling a case of the “Sunday Scaries” that nothing is ever as bad as it seems and nothing is ever as good as it seems.
It just is.
There are highs in every low and lows in every high. Don’t drive yourself crazy trying to chase all the highs and avoid all the lows.
Just like the farmer said, “Good luck, bad luck, who knows?”
Contentment comes from the middle.
