This is a guest post written by Jonny Gibaud of thelifething.com.
Jonny writes for the love of Helping People, Inspiring People and Katie Holmes. He honed his unique writing style through his refusal to read for fear the words would attack him and borrowed his life philosophies from the local stray terrier but plans to give aspects of them back.
132 Days of Freedom
I have a book that I glance at every so often when I can peel my eyes from my computer screen called 132 days. The title relates to the amount of free days the average nine to five worker has including weekends, holidays and bank holidays. At the back it has a survey to access what kind of worker you are, a workaholic or a care free hedonist. There are two survey questions that stand out. Mentally tick as appropriate.
It’s Monday morning and you wake up in:
A. A cold sweat
B. Ample time
C. Amsterdam
What do you think about when you are in the shower?
A. The next big project
B. Breakfast and what I’m going to wear
C. Soap…shampoo…lather….rinse
Right, times up, pens down. What did you answer?
Ones? You are a workaholic and seriously need to put some ice down your trousers and chill out.
Twos? Oh Yeah, you know how it is. Punctual, planned and precise.
Threes? Look at you, you Hedonistic Bad Boy (Or Girl) You can stop reading right now and go back to sipping on you Pinocolada.
Granted I understand that being in group c all the time is just not practical but lets take a quick look at the lifestyle of someone who might fall into that category and see if there is anything will can learn and adapt to our own lives.
Showering in Amsterdam
This is a lifestyle that screams healthy freedom, even though they are in a 9-5. This is a way of thinking and acting that takes guts but brings huge rewards and enjoyment out of life. This is a person that lives in the moment and enjoys the journey without being unhelpfully worried and stressed about the future.
This is an aspect everyone needs in their life and can be easily integrated without the need for surgery.
Chill Like A Jamaican on Ice
For inspiration on this easy living lifestyle I thought I’d travel to Jamaica as those guys are seriously chilled. Then I realised that I wasn’t being paid for this article and thus there would be no expenses form to fill out so I thought better of it and bought my self a coke instead – the posh kind, in a glass bottle, and decided draw on experience.
Start Thinking Head-donistic
3 simple mind molders to help you start thinking a bit more care free.
Life is a Game: Try thinking less of life as a challenge and more of life as a game. This simple change of though process can do wonders for helping you relax and deal with situations and events that arise. Get your Home Runner out and knock that problem out of the park.
Your Achievements will Disappear: A brutal but immensely freeing truth. Nothing in life lasts and eventually everything will be destroyed anyway. This is not to depress you but to free you. You achievements will eventually be forgotten as will you so don’t worry too much about them. Focus instead on developing lasting relationships with people that you love and enjoy sharing your time on this earth with.
Let others stress about gathering as much ice as possible before waking out onto the sun.
A lot of life is luck: Luck plays a very large part in life and success. Although you can help create luck to an extent, ultimately most of life is outside of your control. This is another freeing feeling as it allows you to relax more into the knowledge that:
Even though you have a rudder on your lifeboat, against the vast sea of life it is going to have little effect on the ultimate direction you take so don’t stress.
Lean back, pull on your sun glasses and sigh deeply. Life doesn’t need to be as stressful as many people make it. In a world of ants on steroids consider the caterpillar, it takes things a little slower and is a little more carefree and eventually it becomes…well you know the rest.
True Story
For those skeptics out there, you know who you are, that think living live a Hedonist would cause you to fail miserably in life I have a quick true story to share.
I have actually woken up, in Stuttgart, Germany, on a Monday morning when I should have been in the office in Leeds, UK. I rather unfortunate problem for a Project Manager. Did I get fired? No. Did I lie? No. Did It Work Out? Actually yes.
I phoned my boss and told him the truth. He didn’t quite believe me a first that I was in Germany but when I assured him I was and that I was thinking about popping past one of our German clients “On my way home” that day he actually thought it was a great idea. The client was pretty shocked. Life has a funny way of working out my friend.
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ha ha! love the end story! Great stuff Jonny! You have a really cool way of waking people up to what life’s about!
Jen
“life is a game” This is a great way to approach the struggles and stresses. People worry about far too much, and spend far too little time enjoying the ride.
Cheers for hosting on your awesome site Nate.
@Jen: Your comments always make me smile and feel all tingly. Thankyou.
@Jonathan: Excellent name my friend and I hope you enjoy the game of life more from now on. Cheers for the comment.
Jonny – I enjoyed your quick and colorful storytelling. These truths have a way of being an underlying factor in many “how to” articles but the way that they are told really drives them into my mind and hopefully my habits. Thank you for reminding me.
Hey Jonny glad you could share this post with my readers. Cheers!
This was one of my favorite posts of, well…ever?
You make two killer points that I’ve been trying to remain conscious of anytime I feel even a remote drip of stress sweat dribble into my mouth…wait, that was weird. You know what I mean.
This idea of life = game. What’s the worst that could happen? All about taking risks, because the chances that they’ll ultimately benefit you in the long run are far greater than the chances of you becoming an unbathed, hairy, dumpster-diving homeless man. (Although, I might argue that homeless dudes have it pretty good sometimes. No one is hunting them down on their cell phones and/or trying to sell them eighty-two boxes of freaking thin mints door-to-door.)
The other concept of impermanence is, I think, really valuable and something that requires some serious reflection. My yoga mat awaits that jazz.
I think the overall message we need to be mindful of is not to take ourselves too seriously. You want to couple your navy blue Kmart sweats & varsity hoodie with a pink boa to the grocery store? Do it up!
P.S. Just kidding. I’ve never done yoga in my life!
Hi Ash,
Thanks for the comment and I love you sense of humor and writing style. I have just checked out your blog and even though new will definitely be following.
Good luck in your non yoga matt, slightly less unbathed, hairy, dumpster-diving homeless man life.
Another great post Jonny! I am seeing you everywhere now. Great work.
I agree that luck plays a big role in our successes. We all want to believe in our own personal talent and genius, but the fact is a lot of it boils down to good old fashioned horse shoes up the wazoo.
The very fact that we were fortunate enough to be born in rich countries with Internet access is lucky enough. There are still a couple of billion people out there living on a few dollars per day.