After a hectic workday it’s easy to find excuses to stay at home. Hungry, tired, it’s cold, it’s raining or windy. I felt all of these as I dragged my shopping bag from the car park to my front door. Relaxation was waiting on the jogging trail. It takes determination – maybe that famous “attitude” – to push yourself into motion over your feelings. As it happened, I forced my trainers on and put one foot in front of the other. The energy that wells up in your mind after a run is incredible, as is the feeling of having beaten your excuses. The alternative would have been to stay at home – to be a homebody. Why is it that this word homebody have a negative connotation? I enjoy myself in the kitchen, experimenting and coming up with new recipes. Knitting wool socks while peeking from the rocking chair at the Lion's Cave spinning in the background with its strange business ideas or the MasterChef contestants in challenges.
Even though the itch stays between my thumb and forefinger, it’s extremely difficult to get a book to stay in my lap for more than seven pages. One Friday morning, our CEO Jukka suggested that everyone read Who Moved My Cheese . Guess how excited I was? Not at all. I don’t like reading – at least not reading books. Articles are a different matter. When I heard that the book could be read in less than an hour, my hope was awakened. I read 94 pages without experiencing the pain of the seventh page and without even looking at the page numbers.
The book tells a fairy tale-like story about ways to deal with change through 4 characters, 2 mice and 2 little people. People's sense of security and fears prevent them from acting in new situations. Mice sense and act in change. The simple actions of mice are desirable, but people are slowed down by fears and complex thinking. Taloussanamat once criticized the book as simple. Failed, but still successful. Not a strange book. Did they intend it for their target audience? It might work for basic Americans. I think the book also works for this type of illiterate person. I recognize myself in all 4 characters. Some character is the most dominant in different situations that I encounter at work or in my free time.
Simplicity brings to mind the KISS model of thought, which strives for simplicity. Keep it simple, Stupid! To prevent this from sounding too easy, Albert Einstein was already involved in the model with his idea: Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. (Everythingshould be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.) I’ll stop this increasingly complicated line of thought here.
All fired up by all this, after the workday I’m heading out for a run with a smile on my face as a mouse Now I will end this reflection that is becoming complicated.
Inspired by all this, after a day at work I head out for a run with a smile on Julia Cameron: The Artist’s Way – a spiritual path to higher creativity.
looking for new paths, without unnecessarily treading on the same path. After another day at work, I pick up the 334-page book
Keep it simple, stupid!
