Mental Noise
“I read so much about folks focusing on what doesn’t matter and I wonder if they are killing time so they don’t have to take action on what does matter.”
- Gordon Byrn taken from http://www.gordoworld.com/gblog/archives/2005_11_01_archive.html
“A recession is when your neighbor loses their house; a Depression is when you lose yours.”
- RMK
There is a lot of uncertainty right now, sort of like a looming economic Judgment Day. If your balance sheet is clean, you live below your means and have a robust savings account, then everything is on sale right now. If you are on the other end of the spectrum, this may be a very uncomfortable wake-up call. Personally, I am probably somewhere in the middle of these two extremes: I have blood money in the bank, but my obsessive compulsive tendencies make it very hard to tap into that.
Things could be much worse for me financially and professionally. That does not mean that I am fully insulated from these uncertain economic times. There have been no lay-offs at the company I work for, but a measure was announced a few days ago and it has almost everyone stirring. It was a relatively innocuous measure—compared to many of the other choices that could have been made—but it was the equivalent of taking a relatively docile bee hive and shaking it vigorously: all the feelings of uncertainty and anxiety that most American harbor just below the surface have been given the opportunity to surface and then given a forum to come out and play.
As part of my training for the half marathon in January 2009, a bi-weekly Accountants’ Run has been organized. We ran on Monday and Wednesday of this week, completing 4.4 miles each time. Both runs had a similar pattern: the first 3.4 miles of the run people were talking about all the “what could happen” scenarios, and the last mile was all business—no talk, just a bunch of uptight accountants busting ass, trying to catch the guy who got tired of all the hearsay and broke away. When that last mile was completed, we were all panting, patting each other on the back and saying, “Great run.” I think this experience of “the last mile” holds a very powerful piece of the Truth.
My simple prescription for these unsettling times is this: find something to be engaged in and focus your energies on that task. By doing something that requires the overwhelming majority of your focus and concentration, something that might be on the verge of your skill set, you have to be fully present and put all of your energy in the present moment. “Could be” and “should be” and “might be,” which is my personal favorite, go right out the window. I’m not saying disregard what is going on in the economy, but don’t let uncertainty occupy the lion’s share of your energy.
Part of the reason why people get really focused on the last mile of the run and break away is because it’s all down hill, and goes through a very tight winding trail. It’s not like running on flat pavement; a person must make a lot of physical adjustments along the way to balance both the downhill element and the fancy footwork required to keep from getting run over. The guys I run with didn’t point these things out—they were too engaged in the process of actually running.
For the time being all my energy will be poured into my work and training. I’ll be using my vacation days this winter for half marathon training. It looks like I will be able to knock off for a week in early December and then I’ll have another full week off for the Christmas holiday. That is a lot of great time to train during a crucial part of the training cycle. I might even be able to head down south to Tucson and get an additional half marathon in before the Big Race in January. We’ll see.
So those are my thoughts for today. I’m curious to see what MAD has to say on this topic.
Namaste
- Gordon Byrn taken from http://www.gordoworld.com/gblog/archives/2005_11_01_archive.html
“A recession is when your neighbor loses their house; a Depression is when you lose yours.”
- RMK
There is a lot of uncertainty right now, sort of like a looming economic Judgment Day. If your balance sheet is clean, you live below your means and have a robust savings account, then everything is on sale right now. If you are on the other end of the spectrum, this may be a very uncomfortable wake-up call. Personally, I am probably somewhere in the middle of these two extremes: I have blood money in the bank, but my obsessive compulsive tendencies make it very hard to tap into that.
Things could be much worse for me financially and professionally. That does not mean that I am fully insulated from these uncertain economic times. There have been no lay-offs at the company I work for, but a measure was announced a few days ago and it has almost everyone stirring. It was a relatively innocuous measure—compared to many of the other choices that could have been made—but it was the equivalent of taking a relatively docile bee hive and shaking it vigorously: all the feelings of uncertainty and anxiety that most American harbor just below the surface have been given the opportunity to surface and then given a forum to come out and play.
As part of my training for the half marathon in January 2009, a bi-weekly Accountants’ Run has been organized. We ran on Monday and Wednesday of this week, completing 4.4 miles each time. Both runs had a similar pattern: the first 3.4 miles of the run people were talking about all the “what could happen” scenarios, and the last mile was all business—no talk, just a bunch of uptight accountants busting ass, trying to catch the guy who got tired of all the hearsay and broke away. When that last mile was completed, we were all panting, patting each other on the back and saying, “Great run.” I think this experience of “the last mile” holds a very powerful piece of the Truth.
My simple prescription for these unsettling times is this: find something to be engaged in and focus your energies on that task. By doing something that requires the overwhelming majority of your focus and concentration, something that might be on the verge of your skill set, you have to be fully present and put all of your energy in the present moment. “Could be” and “should be” and “might be,” which is my personal favorite, go right out the window. I’m not saying disregard what is going on in the economy, but don’t let uncertainty occupy the lion’s share of your energy.
Part of the reason why people get really focused on the last mile of the run and break away is because it’s all down hill, and goes through a very tight winding trail. It’s not like running on flat pavement; a person must make a lot of physical adjustments along the way to balance both the downhill element and the fancy footwork required to keep from getting run over. The guys I run with didn’t point these things out—they were too engaged in the process of actually running.
For the time being all my energy will be poured into my work and training. I’ll be using my vacation days this winter for half marathon training. It looks like I will be able to knock off for a week in early December and then I’ll have another full week off for the Christmas holiday. That is a lot of great time to train during a crucial part of the training cycle. I might even be able to head down south to Tucson and get an additional half marathon in before the Big Race in January. We’ll see.
So those are my thoughts for today. I’m curious to see what MAD has to say on this topic.
Namaste
posted by Zen_Accountant at 11:24 AM
1 Comments:
No comment.
MAD
Just kidding. First (and I realize this is a sidebar to the actual meaning of the post) there are plenty of people who were doing everything right (living below their means, gathering retirement savings and investing it to keep ahead of inflation) who also got screwed. Feel really sorry for anyone near or in retirement right now.
On to the post. I agree with your analogy in that it is human nature and a good idea to converse with your fellows to get a handle on what's going on around you. However when there aren't many facts to be found or progress being made, you need to let it go and focus on what's important - the task at hand. I would change your prescription a little bit to say "find something USEFUL to be engaged in and focus your energies on that task." By useful I mean something that will either propel you forward or get you out of the quagmire you might be in right now. For those who think they might be getting let go, "useful" would be looking for a new job.
Unfortunately in life the last mile is often not downhill but really uphill which also requires your focus and effort 100%.
It sounds to me like you're on the right track.
MAD
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