We’re obsessed with making our lives easier.  For as long as history spans, the human race has consistently found ways to improve & make things better &/or more efficient.  Bigger, smaller, better, faster, .  Nothing wrong with that at all.  It drives innovation & if anything will only get better (or worse, depending on how you look at it).  You may be thinking to yourself, “OK” this is common sense” why do I care?”.  Chances are, you’re probably very busy right now doing something important, & once you finish that, you’ll move on to something else.  It’s a vicious cycle that never ends, so it’s debatable whether all of this progress is really making things easier, or if it’s just helping us get things done quicker so we can move on to the next task.  Why is that?  It should be easier, shouldn’t it?  I mean, if you’ve used some technological advancement to finish a certain task in half the time, then you should be able to use the rest of the time to goof around, right?  Or maybe something along those lines?  Work half a day, goof off the rest?  Why does that idea seem to have such a negative connotation?

Easy, like most things in life, is a relative term.  Relativity is one of those topics that often fascinates me, because I find that it helps me put my life into perspective, as well as understand where others are coming from or are going.  People get so wrapped up in their own lives that they forget their life situation doesn’t necessarily apply to others.  Your life at the moment might be hard, while someone elses might be easy at that particular time.  Next thing you know, the tables are turned.  Life is funny that way, which I’m sure we all know at least that.  I find, however, that many people don’t tend to look at their life from a relative point of view.  If I have a conversation with someone about a related topic, I’ll usually make an effort to bring relativity into the discussion.  Not so surprisingly, the response I usually get is “I hadn’t thought about it that way”.

Ok, ok, I’ll get to the point.  I think what we often fail to do is to take a second & step back from it all & really appreciate how far you’ve come & what you’ve accomplished.  It’s especially easy to forget to do these days with our fast paced society.  We accomplish one thing & immediately move on to the next.  Any feelings of gratification from the accomplishment seem so short lived, if they exist at all.  Being in the IT industry, this is especially easy for me.  It seems like by the time I master something, it’s being replaced by something newer.  I don’t have TIME to appreciate my accomplishments!  Thankfully, I’m aware of this so I have somehow made it a subconscious effort to occasionally remind myself to stop & smell the roses.  One of my favorite thoughts is to think back to when I was a teenager just then learning how Windows works, then I quickly fast forward & compare to what I’ve learned since then.  The differences never cease to amaze me.  You should try it sometime, if you haven’t already.