Does the title of today’s post seem like an oxymoron to you? Do you read “success” and trigger that driving voice in your head that whispers, or even yells, “You’re not doing enough.” I believe that today’s culture has most of us convinced that success is proportionate to extreme busyness and stress.
I know what you’re thinking: “Easy for you to lecture about not letting stress and ideas of success dictate life when you live on a tiny Hawaiian island.” Well, in one regard, you’re right. There are no traffic lights, road ragers, or drive-through eateries on Lanai, but, oddly enough, the sneaky stress monster posing as success still has a big hold here. I never thought my experience as my husband’s dental assistant would lend itself to this blog, but this actually helps make my point: teeth grinding is closely linked to stress and on Lanai, we estimate that over 50% of our patients age 20 and above show signs of grinding. So no, we’re not all strolling on the beach with umbrella cocktails in hand. People are still trying to run their lives but are all too often being run by them.
Also, let me say, I firmly believe in a strong work ethic and think that young adults entering the work force often lack the same work ethic as our parents, but that’s a topic for another day. Coupled with my value of work ethic is is a hard-learned practice of taking less time to do more work (efficiency) and prioritizing aspects of life by what matters most to you and therefore warrants a greater amount of work than your actual work does. For example, quality time with my husband is a must in my life. Though we don’t have more actual hours to spend on this than on working, we can purpose to work in a way that preserves energy and allows us to put heart work fully into this area.
Playing in the clouds- Haleakala Crater
One of my new heroes,…