{"id":1225,"date":"2014-05-28T19:09:58","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T15:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hikmah.ekhwan.com\/?p=1225"},"modified":"2014-05-29T21:40:32","modified_gmt":"2014-05-29T17:40:32","slug":"wake-up-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hikmah.ekhwan.com\/index.php\/2014\/05\/28\/wake-up-call\/","title":{"rendered":"Wake up call"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our struggle to put first things first can be characterized by the contrast between two powerful tools that direct us: The Clock and The Compass.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Clock represents our commitments, appointments, schedules, goals, activities-what we do with and how we manage our time… The Compass represents our vision, values, principles, mission, conscience, direction-what we feel is important and how we lead our lives.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The struggle comes when we sense a gap between the clock and the <\/span><\/span>compass-when what we do\u00a0<\/span>doesn’t<\/span>\u00a0contribute to what is most important in our lives.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For some of us, the pain of the gap is intense. We can\u2019t seem to walk or talk. We feel trapped, controlled by other people or situations. We are always responding to crises. We\u2019re constantly caught up in \u2018the thick of thin things\u2019 -putting out fires and never making time to do what we know would make a difference. We feel as though our lives are being lived for us.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For some of us, the pain is a vague discomfort. We just can\u2019t get what we feel we should do, what we want to do and what we actually do all together. We are caught in dilemmas. We feel so guilty over what we\u2019re not doing; we can\u2019t enjoy what we do.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Some of us feel empty.\u00a0<\/span>We’ve<\/span>\u00a0defined happiness solely in terms of <\/span><\/span>professional or financial achievement, and we find that our `success` did not bring us the satisfaction we thought it would.\u00a0<\/span>We’ve<\/span>\u00a0painstakingly climbed the\u00a0\u2018ladder of success\u2019 rung by rung-the diploma, the late nights, and the promotions-only to discover as we reached the top rung that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall. Absorbed in the ascent,\u00a0<\/span>we’ve<\/span>\u00a0left a trail of\u00a0shattered relationships or missed moments of deep, rich living in the wake of the intense, over focused effort. In our race up the rungs, we simply did not take time to do what really mattered most.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Others of us feel disoriented or confused. We have no real sense of what \u2018fist things\u2019 are. We move one activity to another on automatic. Life is mechanical. Once in a while, we wonder if there is any meaning in our doing.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Some of us know we\u2019re out of balance, but we don\u2019t have confidence in other alternatives. Or we feel the cost of change is too high. Or we\u2019re afraid to try. It\u2019s easier to just live with the imbalance.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We may be brought to an awareness of this gap in a dramatic way. A loved one dies. Suddenly she\u2019s gone and we see the stark reality of what could have been, but\u00a0<\/span>wasn’t<\/span>, because we were too busy climbing \u2018the ladder of success\u2019\u00a0to cherish and nurture a deeply satisfying relationship.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We may find out our teenage son is on drugs. Pictures flood our minds-times we could have spent through the years, doing things together, sharing, building the relationship\u2026..but\u00a0<\/span>didn’t<\/span>\u00a0because we were too busy earning a living,\u00a0making the right connections, or simply the newspaper.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The company is downsizing and our jobs on the line. Or our doctor tells us we have just a few months to live. Or our marriage is threatened by divorce. Some crisis brings us to an awareness that what we\u2019re doing with our time and what we feel is deeply important don\u2019t match.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the absence of such \u2018wake-up calls\u2019, many of us never really confront critical issues of life. Instead of looking our deep chronic causes, we look for quick-fix Band-Aids and aspirin to treat the acute pain. Fortified by temporary relief, we get busier and busier doing \u2018good\u2019 things and never even stop to ask ourselves if what we are doing really matters most.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Khuzema Hassanali
\nDar es Salaam
\nTanzania
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our struggle to put first things first can be characterized by the contrast between two powerful tools that direct us: The Clock and The Compass. The Clock represents our commitments, appointments, schedules, goals, activities-what we do with and how we manage our time… The Compass represents our vision, values, principles, mission, conscience, direction-what we feel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,51],"tags":[80,79,92,18,89,86],"class_list":["post-1225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interesting","category-the-world","tag-attitude","tag-leadership","tag-management","tag-opinion","tag-parenting","tag-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hikmah.ekhwan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hikmah.ekhwan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hikmah.ekhwan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hikmah.ekhwan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hikmah.ekhwan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1225"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hikmah.ekhwan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1231,"href":"https:\/\/hikmah.ekhwan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225\/revisions\/1231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hikmah.ekhwan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hikmah.ekhwan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hikmah.ekhwan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}