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Thanks for subscribing and reading. I know how valuable your time and attention are, so seek to ensure that I add value.

Every Sunday I bring you an article, an interesting quote that has been on my mind, and a journal prompt, all related to working and living better.

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Please reach out (tim@​timparkins.com) if you have questions for me or topics you’d like to see me cover.

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Navigating the Messy Road of Life

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As I was out for a walk the other day, an idea struck me; my road at this time of the year is a great analogy for life.

A weird concept? Maybe. But allow me to explain.

Nestled in the country on the edge of the majestic Ottawa River, our house is on a private dirt road that is narrow and winding. During winter months, the road becomes hard-packed with snow and ice and gets rather slippery. But at least it is solid and provides us with easy-enough access to our home. If you have good winter tires on your vehicle, and good boots on your feet, you can easily navigate it.

But at this time of the year, it gets messy. Very messy. Much like life.

You can walk along at a normal walking pace, and things are great. Your footing is stable and you are moving forward at a good pace. Suddenly, you step on a smooth-as-glass piece of ice and your feet go out from under you. You flail your arms around, seeking to find your balance, hopefully, before you fall on your butt. And hopefully without having wrenched your back. Once you have your footing back, you continue on, maybe with a bit more caution and attention to where you are putting your foot.

Much like life. You can bump along, things are going your way. Progress feels reasonably easy. Until suddenly something unexpected happens. You find yourself destabilized and flailing around, needing to find your footing again. So that you can continue, perhaps a bit more cautiously for a bit.

Or you come to a small hill you need to crest, and a sheer sheet of ice covers the entire road. The hill is not very steep, but when combined with the ice, you find you can’t make your way up. It is too slippery. So you need to stop trying to go up, and instead go sideways. Once you get over to the side, you can find some ground that is not as slippery, and you can get a bit of traction. That traction is enough to let you get up the hill.

Just like in life, sometimes you are better off stopping trying to move forward, taking a moment to find a better path. You can’t always just use sheer willpower to get up the hill.

Then there are the ruts in the road. They really come into play at this time of the year, consistently pulling vehicles into them. Navigating the road is easiest if you just stay in the ruts.

The ruts are the perfect metaphor for our habits. If they are going the right way, they make things easier, more comfortable, maybe even safer. But they are hard to escape; they suck you back in. And the more time you spend in them, the deeper they get and the harder they become to escape.

If you focus and put forth effort, you can stay out of the ruts. You straddle the ruts with your wheels and go forward, looking to make a fresh path. But damn, cutting your own path is hard. You have to fight the vehicle. The melting snow is soft and pulls the vehicle around, and you have much less control. It takes strength and concentration to not end up in the ditch. Again, just like life. We can resist our habits and fight to stay outside of them, but it takes effort and attention. And there is a tendency to slip back into the well-worn path, back into the ruts of our habits.

The potholes in the road at this time of the year are nuts. You hit them and feel every tooth in your head rattle. Like life; there are smooth patches where things feel easy, and then there are the potholes that you weren’t able to avoid. The ones that really bang, that make you wince. Life has potholes you don’t see coming, that is for sure.

So my road can be a mess, a real pain to navigate. But I love it anyway.

Because even though it can be challenging, it can also be beautiful. In the fall, the leaves explode with fiery colour, and the beauty will take your breath away. Or after a snowfall in the winter, the boughs of the trees sag with the weight of the snow, and the road looks like a picture from a postcard. Or while on a walk, you come across some of the local wildlife, reminding you of how amazing it is that we all just seem to get along.

And of course, the road leads me home.

So yes, it can be messy, just like life. But there is a natural beauty to it, just like life.

Quotation that I have been pondering

In conversations concerning the world of work, there is incessant chatter about the need to “find your passion”. I get the point people are trying to make, but I feel they are going about it backwards. You don’t “find” a passion. You create it through exploration, play, and following threads that interest you.

The incredible playwright George Bernard Shaw summed it up well in this quote that I have been thinking about;

Your life is something that you design and create, regardless of whether you do it intentionally or unintentionally. So you may as well create a life you love living.

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Journal Prompt

Humans are social animals, wired to cooperate with one another. As a result, one of the most important factors in developing a successful life and career is figuring out how to work well with others.

When you invest in helping others succeed, you are investing in your own future success. Which leads to this week’s journal prompt;

Who might you help today and how? It doesn’t have to a big thing. Just help someone, and you are setting yourself up for success. Do that consistently, and people will line up to help you too.

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