Smelling the roses

I went out of my car to smell the roses.

The sight of those roses and the smell I know I would experience soon were just too tempting to pass by.

I don’t remember the exact date and time, but I do remember I was in a hurry going somewhere when I got struck by this beautiful sight and decided to stop.

My appointment could wait a few more minutes.

The interruption of my busyness only took a few minutes, but when I reflected later that day on what I was grateful for, the roses made it to the list.

I stop daily to reflect on what I’m grateful for. Not just when I smell roses.

I’ve learned to stop a lot.

And take it all in, whatever it is at that moment.

I stop at the start of the day, and I stop at the end of the day. I stop in between to make sure I’m stopping enough.

All with one conscious goal in mind.

That I spend enough time ‘being’ versus ‘doing’.

Don’t get me wrong, I DO still a lot more on a daily basis than I practice BEING.

We all do.

Doing is eventually and ultimately what delivers the results we all need in life. We can’t think and smell our way to success. Action is needed.

But…

We can also spend our entire life doing the stuff we do without stopping, working day in and day out, year in and year out until we retire or we’re no longer needed.

Best case scenario, we still have a good amount of years left to enjoy the rest of our lives.

Worst case scenario, we never prepared our body and mind for the years after we stop working, and we fall into a black hole.

Or we die much faster than we thought we would. Because our body can’t get used to our new rhythm.

I know at least three stories of people who worked their behinds off for their entire life, only to pass away within twelve months after they stopped working.

They never had time to smell the roses.

They were thinking the roses would still be there when they stopped working.

Don’t make this mistake as well. ‘Being’ is an important part of ‘doing’ well.

Back to doing.

What you do matters if it helps you deliver on YOUR goals, and then the goals of others, not vice versa.

Most people don’t care about who you are, but primarily what you do for them and their business. They care about you’re doing, not so much about your being.

With one exception.

The people who work for you. They care more about who you ‘are’ for them.

In summary:

It’s your job to care about what you do, and that starts with understanding who you want to be.

So…

• Are you the person you want to be right now?
  
• Do you know what you want?
  
• Are you working towards your personal goals?
  
• Or do you keep postponing thinking that there’s always time to do what you really want?
  
• Or worse, postponing your efforts in becoming the person you would like to be?

The world will not pause for you.

Erikjan Lantink

You have to press the stop button yourself and get out of the car every once in a while to smell the roses.

Your turn: when was the last time you smelled the roses?

Do more of what makes you happy!

Erikjan