Mirrored Reality

Life is kinda funny.

Of course, you already know that. Where else could you start traveling north and eventually wind up in the south?

Your mind loves playing tricks on you. Now, most of us don’t mind being fooled now and then, especially if the outcome is not dramatic or traumatic.  I think it worsens as you get older, too.

Be that as it may….

When you are one way, you wonder what it would be like to be another way. Your mind gets used to what ‘is’, yet hopes to get you pumped about what ‘could be’. Most times that’s okay. It encourages us to look for new jobs, new places to walk, new books to read and such.

Sometimes change is important. Getting out of an abusive relationship, a dead end job, or a poisonous atmosphere are changes definitely worth making. The future has to be better than where you are.

But the mind loves messing around with you. Teases you that maybe what you initially thought as rough really isn’t that rough.

The thought of retirement is like that.

You’ve worked all your life. Answered to countless bosses, co-workers, and job descriptions. You spend a few extra days at home and think “this is the life. I could do this forever.”

And, indeed, cleaning house or changing kitty litter or grocery shopping are even trade offs for sleeping in an hour later or eating breakfast at 1 p.m. After all, you have to do those jobs anyway. But you don’t have to sell things or stand in an assembly line or input data or punch a time clock.

Then your mind starts to trick you. Oh, maybe work isn’t really that bad. After all, I still get to be with my kids in the evening, go to soccer and basketball games, go out to dinner on weekends. I can take vacation when I want and still get paid for it; I can hang with my work friends and maybe even work my way up the corporate ladder.

So you put off thoughts of leaving.

Then you get back to work Monday morning and it’s still the frustrating mess you left behind last week. There are no new jobs to apply for; your co-workers and you still complain and get up too early and are never understood. You once again realize that retirement looks like the way out.

Why does our mind only care about where we are at the time?

You can think through anything and come out with the opinion you were looking for. Logic kinda sidesteps and all these reasons to come or go pop up. Reasons you weren’t looking for in the first place. Reasons to stay. Reasons to go.

Retirement is my mental bag at the moment; yours may be a dream vacation, taking a class, or having dinner with your family. The point is — don’t be afraid of change.

Beware of the alternative universe. Don’t talk yourself out of doing what you really want to do. The opportunity may come again, but it will be different. YOU will be different. But your alternate reality won’t be.

And your mind will have fooled you again.