The Three Boxes of Life
We live in a box. From one box, we move into another and then another one, and in all of these boxes, we feel trapped like a mouse. We wanted to be able to do more, to get out more out of life, but feel unable to do so. We feel frustrated at different points in time for different reasons: initially, the feeling of not doing as much as we should have been doing, then the feeling of not doing enough, then the feeling of perhaps doing too much and consequently, not doing anything at all.
I am not fond of self help books, just because I feel that they are quite theoretical and also because I feel that they depreciate the ‘self’. Thus, I started Richard Bolles book “The Three Boxes of Life” with my typical skeptical attitude but it got changed. I liked this book in a limited capacity, as it is about life/work planning. As earlier on I was just managing things and not life itself.
And why the hell do I feel that I suddenly need to plan and manage life? Well it is the feeling of the passage of time at a very swift pace. A couple of birthdays were celebrated a few days ago. And all of them had the familiar ring: “Time is passing us by!” In the kind of times where the average life expectancy is not beyond 60 and 50 even, and even lesser than that, I have already lived half of my life. I am no longer young. It is the naivety of youth which gives you everything to look forward to and not much to look back at. Well you can disagree if you want to but I am talking about myself here only.
The three boxes of life are: Learning, Work and Play.
The majority of us spent life being entrapped in any of these boxes. We study and study, we then, work and work, taking no time out for play. Or, we spend more time at play, neglecting our duties. The result is a degree of discontentment and guilt. We all have experienced it. We strive for completion of things, not for the contentment that result from undertaking them.
So now I am managing my days and week in a different manner. After analyzing my deadlines in a particular week, I set aside time for myself without feeling guilty. I try to plan separate set of leisure/pleasure activities: one that involves my family members, one that involves any of my friends/or the maximum number of them, and one that solely involves me. In this, I throw in two days of jogging/walking, bed time and evening time reading sessions, and phone calls to be made and emails to be sent out to friends. I make a list of household chores to do. I do all of my socializing on Friday night or Saturday, simply chill out on Sunday by reading books, watching TV etc. And life is already looking a little bit more productive and a tad bit less hassled.
Last week, I finished 85% of the work that I set to do. Went for jogging twice. Finished the book that I was reading. Visited an ailing relative. Fixed some food for him and dropped it today on the way to work. Dinned out with the family. And finally on Saturday, I went to see Imran Aslam’s play “If you have Shakespeares, prepare to shed them now”. The humor was OK, not side splitting funny and forced at time, but it did manage to evoke some laughter. And every moment that one smiles – counts! I liked in particular: the rendition of “Friends, Romans, Countrymen…” in Punjabi, and other jokes like Caliban V.S. Taliban, Shia and Sunni – the new alliance being called “Sushi” etc. Anyways, this play hardly makes up for me missing “Ayub” the play 2 weeks back, but at least it was an outing. And above all, I met my blog-buddy neurotic at the post- play tea. It was coincidental but every bit enjoyable. In fact I think I have a happiness headache. I did work a little bit on Sunday but then spent the rest of the time being a lazy assed…
Let’s see what the next week brings…
