Monday, March 30, 2015

Carpe Diem Fail

Most of my friends, and sadly, myself too, have consumed allot of energy complaining about all of the snow this winter. It's been quite the mob mentality bandwagon actually. Social Media is replete with angry outbursts where nobody escapes blame. The weatherman, the city snow removal folk, mother nature, even God are at the end of an angry arm shake. This kind of makes you wonder about our collective failure to seize the day. Oh sure there's the occasional snowshoeing or skiing photo that appears, but largely it's been a negative affair. Through all of this of course, we've wasted a full 2 months of another new year that we've been gifted with. Children of course, don't seem to suffer from this affliction, with their innocent ability to love the snow in direct proportion to its quantity. I'm guilty as well, of not enjoying the time that I've been given. God help me. A recent Facebook post made me pause and think. It suggested that each day, your "bank" is gifted with a balance of 86400 seconds. Whatever you don't use gets flushed as the balance is reduced to zero, and then back up to 86400 for the next day. How much have I wasted? Since there's no point in wasting more time crying over it, all we can do now is purpose to do better, starting today. Carpe Diem !! Who's with me ?
To be fair, it's a little easier to be active and happier in the warmer weather, but realistically, we don't live in a warm place so we must either overcome, or be doomed to a life of complaining for 6+ months, Is that what we want ?
Some of course are fortunate: They routinely head for warmer digs each winter. That's nice if it's your thing, but it seems like a bit of a cop out that I'm not fond of. Anyway...food for thought...
To me, the lesson here is to invest some time and effort into stacking the deck in your favor. Here's some suggestions:

  • Get a snow-blower so that you can get the work out of the way and have time for play. I've notice often, that after spending hours shoveling, I'm not in the mood to go skiing for example.
  • Get organized BEFORE the snow flies and winter sets in. Then you'll be less likely to just throw in the towel and pray for spring.
  • Invest in dressing more appropriately. Too often, we venture outside under-dressed and complain about freezing. This sounds silly, but it's true.
  • Explore the whole concept of being mindful, living in the moment, and avoid wishing for tomorrow. This can be counter-culture thinking but really, it makes no sense to deny yourself everything for now, in the hope that you'll do everything in retirement...it's a BIG risk...
  • Consider some accountability measures. This can include joining some club or group so that activities can be scheduled. This is good if you lack motivation (like me).
  • Consider a separate "Winter Plan" for the December-March quarter. Draw on your former failures and successes and write down/schedule a bunch of stuff. You probably won't have total success, but just aim to do better than "last year"

IVECO...

 This beauty has been roaming around Central Newfoundland lately. I just grabbed some photos of it for fun...

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