What do you do when there’s nothing to do? In life, it seems that we have these times when events are coming fast, there’s too much to do, it’s overwhelming, we don’t have any time, things are just too chaotic, too fast, and we’re overwhelmed.
And then we have other times when it seems like nothing is happening, there’s nothing clearly there to do immediately, and things are kind of boring.
So the completely understandable, normal, reactive way of facing these times is that when there’s nothing to do, we are bored, and being bored is uncomfortable, so we find a way to entertain ourselves and pass the time.
And then when things are going too fast, when there’s too much going on, then we freak out, and maybe even panic, and suddenly jump into high gear and try to put out all the fires that are going on.
And then things settle down again, and then we’re bored again, and we pass the time again.
So while this is completely understandable, maybe we can use this pattern to our advantage.
When we have nothing to do, we can still remember that the fires are coming, that the crowded, busy, overloaded, freaking out, panic times, those times are always around the corner.
There’s always difficulties that are on the way.
So when we have this time that appears empty, we can use this time to prepare for the difficult times.
And this seems like this is the way of thinking of somebody who is maybe a warrior or a guard, somebody who has this kind of duty.
Most of the time, there’s nothing to do, because most of the time there’s no fighting going on.
If you’re a guard, you know, most of the time, the place that you’re guarding is completely uneventful, but you’re there to be ready for the times when things get very serious very quickly.
So what if we brought a bit of this way of thinking into our own lives? Now, we’re not exactly guards.
I mean, that hopefully is not our attitude for our whole life, since that does seem pretty boring, to you know, always be preparing for a few short, specific times.
There’s lots of other things to do outside those times of crisis.
We can’t- you know, it doesn’t seem like for most of us we should be focused on crisis, crisis, crisis.
We have lots of other things we can do during these uneventful times.
But still, it seems like that’s part of our lives, that’s part of who we are, that we all have to deal with these overload, too much happening, crisis moments.
And so in the boring downtime when nothing’s happening we can do what a warrior or a guard would do.
And you know, first of all, make sure that the defences are intact, and that everything, the whole system is set up the way it should be.
You don’t have doors unlocked, don’t have some strange thing going on, something seems off, you have to investigate, and make sure that the plan is ready for what to do when these various possible disasters happen.
To have that whole system prepared, the defensive system, have that be ready.
And that’s something that we can apply to our own lives, so that when we’re in those times that appear boring and uneventful, we can prepare for the more likely of adverse events that might happen.
And then beyond that, if the defences are good, everything is in order, then it’s time to train.
Training for the difficult times ahead.
We can make ourselves stronger.
During these boring, uneventful times, we can make ourselves stronger for the times when we need to be strong, the times that we’ll be tested.
So I’d be curious to hear if you do anything like this in your life, and what sort of difficult times do you prepare for, and how do you do it?
#readyfortrouble #preparefortrouble #troubleahead