Don't Be Stupid!
Four Rules to Simplify Your Life
by
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I’m confused! I just don’t know how to get my life in line with these people who have it all together.
You know the ones I’m talking about. They only need five hours of sleep every day. They get to work at 6 o’clock in the morning. Make deals, attend meetings, visit with clients and make thousands of dollars every day. They work ‘til 8 o’clock in the evening, but still find the time to go to the gym or go running or biking every day. They also have enough time to be a husband, father, son and friend every day. All keeping everything in their lives running smoothly. They even find time to keep up with all the happenings in the world, both politically and socially and especially in the entertainment and sports arenas. The time to focus on their spiritual lives, too!
They do all this and still are able to post on Facebook, Tweet and check on their LinkedIn connections and let everyone know all that is happening in their lives. They even have pictures to prove all of this.
I guess I just don’t measure up! Actually I applaud the 5% of people who can do all the above. (okay, I don’t have any statistics to support these percentages, just go with me on this) You show the rest of us that life can be conquered. It can be “heaven on earth”.
However, speaking as a member of the other 95%, my life is a lot different than yours. Oh sure, there are days that look very similar and there are certain parts of your life that are very similar to mine most of the time. But all of days and all of the parts…… well that just doesn’t happen for me.
My life isn’t bad, just not perfect.
Problem is, almost everything in our world today is based on comparisons. Trying to measure up to those 5% people. We see them on TV, in the movies and magazines. We are told that we should “do more” and be more efficient in our time management. We hear about how lucky we are to be living in this country with all the opportunities available to anyone! It’s tough to argue with them.
We are lucky. We do have opportunities here in the US that aren’t available to people in other parts of the world. But, we are not clones! We are all individuals who function differently and we don’t all have the same abilities and talents. That is what makes our country great, if you ask me. The fact that even though we all have the same opportunities and privileges, we get to choose our own course in life.
Our country was founded on the principal of freedom. Freedom to choose our course in life. Freedom of speech, religion, philosophy and other freedoms that each person can make in their lives. Diversity of these choices and the freedom to do so is what separates us from so many people in the world.
Have you ever considered how many choices you make in a day? I suspect it may easily run in the hundreds. Some of them are mundane in nature.
Do I hit the snooze button again? What will I eat for breakfast? Will I eat breakfast? What should I wear today?
Choices are an amazing thing. They sometimes don’t really affect much in the way our lives are played out, such as the ones mentioned above. They often times are things we really don’t even notice happening.
Do I turn on the radio this morning? Did I turn off the light in the bathroom? Did I turn off the radio?
“Free Will”
What does that term mean to you?
In our country, it means that you have the right to choose the direction you want to go without the government dictating those choices to you. Certainly there are other factors in our country laws that limit those choices. For instance, we have laws preventing one person from making choices that hurt other people. But, generally speaking, each person has the right to choose most everything for themselves.
In religion, it means that each person also has the choice to believe in who or what they choose. The right to a fervent faith or a passive one. The right to choose whether to even follow religious principles or not.
These freedoms we have are certainly a very valuable commodity and worth defending. But they also come with a cost.
The freedom of choice, “Free Will” if you please, must also include the outcome of these choices. If a person has the right to make individual choices for their lives, they must accept the accountability of the results of their choices.
Again, some of the results are as mundane as the choices themselves.
Choice: “Will I eat breakfast this morning?”
Result: I may get hungry if I don’t or I may feel sluggish if I do.
Point is that even though the choice seems mundane, the result is by your own choosing and you must be willing to accept the outcome.
Now, multiply this by the number of choices we make in a day and it’s not hard at all to understand where stress comes from in our lives. If we choose to live our lives in the comparison mode I described above, it could easily prove to be disastrous for our own well being.
So, you don’t want all this responsibility? Easy enough! Give up your right to make individual choices. Let someone else make the choices for you. That way, the results will be on them not you. Of course, all you have to do in this case is simply accept your subservient role. Very similar to the way we raise our children. We make almost every choice for babies and even toddlers. This is perfectly OK with the kids because they really don’t know any other way. They simply cry when things don’t suit them and wait for someone to remedy the situation to their satisfaction.
See being a baby is a pretty cushy job if you can get it! Problem is, it isn’t so cute as the child grows up. Parents are eager for the time when the child can handle things themselves. Society doesn’t approve of the acts of a baby when they are performed by a grown up. When a person has the ability to function as a responsible member of society, we believe that they should take that opportunity and live by the same rules as we do.
Choices
Our lives are really centered around choices. There’s no avoiding them. There’s no avoiding the results of these choices, either. The consequences that naturally follow the choices we make are what separates one person from another. Who makes the better choices in life.
Comparisons
Making comparisons to others is the primary cause of stress in our lives. We must choose to control these comparisons and to whom we compare ourselves.
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About the Book
We cannot control a lot of things in the world. The only thing we can control is what we decide to do.
Have you ever felt like you made a bad decision?
Have you ever felt like you could make better decisions?
Have you made decisions that altered the course of your life in a direction you did not intend on going?
Have you made decisions that made you slap your forehead and yell, “Duh”?
Do you want to improve your world and live with less stress?
By using the Four Rules, you can take control of your choices and the decision-making process that directs your life.
We can change the world, but change has to start somewhere. Let’s start with us. Me First!
“Gary Jones is not an ivory tower academic, a Harvard MBA, a television evangelist, or a political consultant. He is a simple man with a simple message: four rules to change your decision-making life. We all have some type of psychological system to make decisions—Gary’s system works!”
—Mike Bishop, PhD., professor of marriage and family therapy, Capella University
About the Author
Gary Jones is a husband, father, and grandfather. After graduating from Abilene Christian University with a business management degree, he has owned an insurance agency and has been a teacher, a consultant, an advisor, and has umpired high school baseball during the past forty years. He lives in Texas and has kept himself young at heart by staying active in sports and other recreational activities. His involvement with various organizations has allowed him to utilize his common-sense approach to develop a keen awareness of reading and understanding people and has resulted in him being sought after by many friends and business associates for advice.