Posted on 15 Aug, 2008 -
Life is a Test. It is Only a Test
“Life is a Test. It is Only a Test”
So pop on a white silk tracksuit and see if you can turn it into a fun challenge - instead of a constant weight on your shoulders…
I am actually away on holiday this week - in Venice for seven days with a husband and two children melting and going up the wall because I failed to consider whether the appartment we’re staying in had airconditioning no doubt.
Thanks to the powers of modern technology and a man called Phil, however, I am able to send you this as if I were sitting in my study overlooking the rooftops, fields and television masts of home.
As I am not actually here (well I am as I’m writing it but you know what I mean) and have suitcases to pack and hand-held fans to buy, I have decided to cheat a little this week and basically rip off one of my favourite tips from Richard Carlson’s brilliant best-selling book, Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff… and it’s all small stuff.
One of his favourite humorous posters, Richard says, reads “Life is a test. It is only a test. Had this been a real life you would have been instructed where to go and what to do.”
Immediately when you take this view of things, your life feels a little lighter and less serious.
Challenge Anneka - or even see yourself flying round in a helicopter
If we see all the trials and tribulations that come our way as more like a challenge for Anneka than a heavy burden on our shoulders, we may rise to the challenge with more hope of overcoming it - and a smile on our face at least. Each new challenge is an opportunity to do well, an opportunity to learn and an opportunity to grow.
“As an experiment”, Richard says, “see if you can apply this idea to something you are forced to deal with. Perhaps you have a difficult teenager or a demanding boss. See if you can redefine the issue you face from being a ‘problem’ to being a test. Rather than struggling with your issue, see if there is something you can learn from it. Ask yourself, “Why is this issue in my life? What would it mean and what would be involved to rise above it? Could I possibly look at this issue any differently? Can I see it as a test of some kind?”
Will it work in the baking hot sun?
I will not, I can tell you now, be suggesting to my husband that he tries “seeing it as a fun test rather than a problem” when the heat in our apartment reaches 35 degress and the kids are unable to sleep for the third time in a row. But it might just prove useful in dealing with the situation myself!
Last time we went to Venice (it is one of the places I like to be most in the world apart from up here alone in my room) I booked us into a budget hotel with no airconditioning and my husband moved us to the soulless hotel next door that was not so “atmospheric” but was certainly cooler.
I’m sure we will survive and I can’t wait to be on holiday at last!
Talk to you when I get back!
