It was in 1964, I must have been 13. At The Lawrence School at Lovedale where I studied it was customary for everyone to sign in “autograph books” of everyone else!! This morning, I suddenly remembered something that Pat Dedeyn wrote so many years ago (where are you, Pat?). It wasn’t his own, of course, but it made a great impact on me then…. as it does even now.
“I cried when I had no shoes
Until I saw a man who had no feet”
Don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting that we should not be ambitious and want to “get ahead” in today’s highly competitive world. It just strikes me as being eminently sensible to look at not only what others have that we don’t but to balance this by looking at what we have which others don’t….more often than not, that’s a lot of things. I find this thought process reduces a stressor for most people.
As the Irish proverb goes: Count your joys instead of your woes; count your friends instead of your foes.
Filed under: Work Life Balance
