It’s hot here. Unbearably hot. Outside, early afternoon, it’s already 110 F and rising (43.3 C) and inside, where my AC is struggling to keep up, it’s 88 F (31 C). It feels awful.The summer is in high gear in Australia, and it’s even too hot to go for a swim in my Outback town. The pool water is far from refreshing, and it would take mere minutes before my fair skin looked like a lobster’s.I FaceTimed with family this morning, and you know what? Where they live in the USA? It’s freezing. They’re getting ready for snow and the kids can’t go outside without full winter regalia.Yesterday, as I laid on my couch and tried not to move, I closed my eyes and imagined growing up in the USA. I vividly pictured the snow all around me. I stood there, in my vision, with no coat, turned my head to the sky, and willed myself to feel the chill. All I wanted was five minutes of coolness without standing in front of the freezer with the door open. It didn’t work.Back on the other side of the planet, my siblings were jealous that next week my family will be sitting on a beach (in a cooler part of the country) while they’re still bundled to the hilt.I want what they have; they want what I have.We can’t will ourselves to instantly change our circumstances . Picturing snow didn’t make me shiver, it made me long for the past, and what others have. All it did in my present is make me resent this moment – other than the heat, this moment has a lot of good too.
What Happens When You Fixate on What Others Have?
When you fixate on things that are going wrong in your life, you miss what’s going right. At work, play, home, with friends and family it’s an eternal truth: Turn to the dark; you miss the light.Wishing I had what others have (cold!) doesn’t cool me off. The same is true that watching someone rise in their career or with their business and being
overwhelmed by jealousy doesn’t create good things in your life.
Action x Time
All it takes for each of us to get what we want is action x time. It’s the most powerful formula you need to know.I can’t change the season, but I can go to somewhere with better AC. I can get through this time with grace and cheer as opposed to anger and sweat. It won’t be this way forever.Eventually, it won’t be a heat wave here, and the snow will melt on their street. Time passes; things change. Not to mention, every time you get used to your current conditions, they change again.Of course, this also means that some things that are fabulous right this minute won’t be that way forever too. That’s why
as things change, we too need to decide to change. While you’re in the midst of the discomfort, it can feel like it will take forever, but it’s won’t. I promise.Things change with time, but it’s your actions that influence your path.Action x time is the most critical thing you can know about the year ahead. This is the formula that will make you unstoppable.Related:
Your To-Do List Won’t Suffer When You Do This Too The Only Thing You Need to Know About the Year Ahead?
It will bring change. It’s inevitable.Your kids will continue to grow and mature.You will get used to your new position or new org, or
you’ll leap again.Summer becomes Fall becomes Winter becomes Spring.Time will pass.Will finish your novel?Make time for your kids? Partner?Change jobs?Start a blog?Quit longing for a life that you don’t have without doing a single thing to create it?
The question is: Are you on a raft at the mercy of the sea as the current changes or will you grab the oars? Here’s what you can count on: The current will shift, the waters will be calm again after the rain, rocks and waterfalls will make things unpredictable.
You decide in the year ahead… Victim or creator?This too shall pass.
