What a year

[West Texan]

I've missed getting on the forum for quite a while now. Work has me turned upside down and running everywhere. My last camping trip was in February and I have been dying to get back out. Going to try for another trip labor day weekend if I can peel away from work. Don't really have time to plan anything, will most likely hit the same trail. Hope to get back on CF more often again as well. Have missed all my fellow campateers.

Happy trails,
WT

[terasec]

Re: What a year

welcome back,
hope you get to hit the trails soon,

[Mike]

Re: What a year

Sorry to hear that work has kept you from camping

That happened to me for a decade. All I can tell you for sure is that you don't get that decade of good health life back. No do-overs

You can turn tomorrow into yesterday, but you can't turn yesterday into today

AND, if you are working for somebody else and you are giving up your camping or other personal time for them, you are really truly cheating yourself (and it isn't your employer's fault)

[ppine]

Re: What a year

I am with Mike. Missing out on camping for months at a time is a high price to pay. Camping is not only re-creation, but part of a mental health plan. Be careful or you will wake up one day and be 50 years old and wonder where your youth went. I use trips to keep track of time. I can remember memorable trips in every year I have been on this planet.

[Mike]

Re: What a year

A few people love their jobs so much that for them, work is play. This could be the chef who loves to cook, the artist who loves to artsy-fartsy, the teacher who loves being with kids. These people work long overtime hours because it is more joyful to them than doing anything else not related to work. Yes, these people really DO exist.

For most people, though, work is a way to earn money. They might enjoy aspects of their work and many just tolerate it. They might have financial incentives to work long hours, but there is no joy in it. These people are selling their lives for money.

There is another group that is motivated mostly by fear: Fear of losing their job. Fear of not getting a promotion, fear of failure. These folks are most likely to work after hours, weekends, and holidays without any extra pay - in fact, without any pay for these extra hours. These people are literally giving their lives to their employers for free.

The constant pounding of bad news from the media is a constant fear generator telling people that we are in the midst of a gigantic worldwide recession - the worst ever. Oh My. OH MY! The truth is that if these people had never heard there was a recession, most of them would have lived right through it without noticing there was some kind of massive recession. MOST people did not lose their job during the recession and MOST people did not have their pay cut. Instead, they worried and worried and gave more and more of their lives to their employers most often without their employers asking them to do so. .

These folks are not motivated by the thrill of work nor are they motivated by ambition. They are motivated by fear and anxiety and they are rewarded accordingly with stressful lives, deteriorated health, and worst of all, the lost opportunity to LIVE as God had intended them. God put you here to enjoy life. You were not put on this earth to toil and worry and labor most of your hours until death.

For those who live with anxiety and stress, my word of advice is to stop listening, watching, and reading mainstream news. This is not news that you use in your lives. It's only purpose is to create anxiety and fret and stress. Avoid the media's worldwide collection of exclusively bad news and watch your mental health improve.

How come I am such a smarty pants? Well, because I was one of those folks. I worked my way up into leadership positions in big corporations and I watched MBA graduates decision makers destroy peoples lives by the hundreds often right before Christmas. Of course, they never cut their own jobs and I did speak up against that type of decisions making, but my voice did not have supporters among those decision makers. I watched good people's lives and careers be disrupted by absolutely no fault of their own. People that gave long hours to the company would be fired with the laziest - because the decision was made to cut X% of the work force in every department. I watched executives coldly vote to cut jobs of their FRIENDS who they knew had just bought new homes or who had spouses with terminal illnesses who needed insurance. I was swept up in the worry and gave more than two decades of countless overtime hours and countless weekends to companies that took as much as they could from their employees, but did not feel any obligation to reciprocate the loyalty. Finally, by a God given twist of beatiful blessed fate, I stepped out of that environment and now own my own company (so now, I can abuse myself and benefit from the abuse!)

Folks, don't give your lives to your employers. I have been in board rooms and can tell you that if you are not one of the people who sit in the board rooms, your sacrifices of overtime, missed family events, missed weekends and holidays are not truly recognized by those people inside the board rooms. Your job can be cut with complete disregard for all your years of sacrifices and despite how critical you think your efforts and knowledge are to the company, the company will go on without you.

Finally, live every day as if it were your last because one day you will surely be correct.

[West Texan]

Re: What a year

Thanks ya'll. One way or another, I'm headed out for labor day weekend. I'm hoping to take a day or two off with the three day weekend but if I only get the three days, I'll make the best of them.

WT