How to catch the rabbit

by The Fox

Do you know those days when projects snow on you at work? Well, I was having one of those precise days when on my way to the train station, tired and thinking only about having a shower, dinner and crawling into bed, I turned the autopilot mode on, thinking at how my life was very crammed with mostly just work.

Midway I was stopped by a lady (the usual survey/ charity worker type) saying that she was looking for girls my age for a new project. I smiled and said ‘No thank you, I don’t have time’ and left without listening to the rest of her phrase…

Twenty seconds later it hit me: what if I am missing the opportunity of my life just because my autopilot mode is always on and I don’t make time for anything? Not that I was seriously considering that the lady was indeed offering the opportunity of a lifetime, but that’s not the point. A scene from a silly movie jumped into my mind, a scene from Dumb & Dumber where the two characters are stranded on a motorway and while moaning about how they never got a lucky break in their life, a bus full of gorgeous girls stops and offers to take the two with them. As you can imagine, they refuse and continue on they way complaining about never getting a lucky break.

This was the only memorable scene from the movie and I realized that I might actually be one of the two, always complaining of my lack of luck while not being open minded, taking a breath and being present all the time to seize the opportunities arising in my life.

I sometimes feel that the autopilot mode helps me get through a busy day by keeping me focused and efficient, and I am known for my efficiency. However, most of those days drain my energy and I tend to lose sight of the big picture and goals I set.

This is why I need to remind myself from time to time that this is not who I am and how I would envisage living my life. How, for my own sake, I need to take a deep breath, enjoy the surroundings and every little thing that life has to offer. This might prove difficult, especially while working in a big corporation where you are taught that success is measured by the amount of ‘big’ jobs you secure and how quickly you can advance on the ‘advisor’s ladder’, the many extra hours you put in and the amount of sleep you can go on without.

So I would just like to remind myself that life is short and opportunities are like the hypnotic rabbits jumping out of the magician hat, all I need to do is to turn off my autopilot mode, keep curious, open my eyes and my mind and surely I will catch the jumping rabbit.

Photo by William Daigneault on Unsplash