You’re paralysed at the wheel of your speeding family car, unable to steer, brake or move whatsoever. But your wife and daughter are strangely still smiling in the back seat – as if they can’t hear you shouting and screaming. You pass some friends who seem oblivious and smile and wave as you speed past.
Believe it or not, this is not a Family Guy episode, but one of my past nightmares, burned into my (usually terrible) memory. It later occurred to me that this was a solid analogy of what my life looked like at the time.
Stop the World
Feeling like you have no control over you and your families future destination is a stressful place to be. A feeling of helplessness and weakness, often when your family needs YOU to be quite the opposite.
You genuinely care for your families health, safety and security; while you secretly hope that your vision of an increasingly shit future is something you’re wrong about. Because, surely if this is what you believed, you’d be doing something about it.
You read/watch the ‘news’ and are increasingly concerned about the trajectory of things. There are enough unknowns in life to contend with. Surely it would be pointless to pretend you can alter the course of events. Life is hard enough just keeping things afloat. You may tell yourself that:
“We all die of something.”
“It’s pointless wasting energy on something we can’t control.”
“It will hopefully blow over.”
“Act normal, blend in and don’t be such a sensationalist.”
While the rose-tinted types drown themselves in Netflix and Dorritos, some of us have been paying attention. Hopefully, we’re wrong, but the trajectory isn’t looking great.
Will this shit-show manifest in a significant eroding of our health and freedoms with associated increases in poverty, crime, and stress? Or will our misery be brief when the supermarket shelves empty three days after the power goes off?
My conservative guess is, it will be something in-between, but that the life-shortening consequences for ourselves and our families will be very, very real.
Meanwhile, Back at the Office
Who’s in control of YOUR future health? Are you too busy looking after loved ones in the back seat without watching the road ahead. You don’t consider yourself old yet, but it doesn’t feel that way these days.
Maybe you’re seeing the results of those long hours and many years, hunched over desks, staring at screens and sitting in traffic jams.
Perhaps the scourge of the office has already taken its toll while you continue to run around town, trying to put a smile on everyone’s face. Does this trajectory have a sense of inevitability about it?
Perhaps you’re not feeling very capable right now? If you don’t make any changes, how do you think you’ll feel 5 years from now?
Maybe you’re struggling to heave yourself out of bed and into the car without a handful of pills. You’re not ‘old’ by any means, but you’re not very handy about the house or productive at work either. How long till it gets noticed? Was this the only job you ever saw yourself doing and if so, what’s plan B?
When the shit hits the fan and you’re no longer around, will everyone else manage just fine without you? Who’s going to walk the dog, pay the bills, provide the taxi/IT support/ money handouts; chop the wood and fix stuff about the house?
The Elephant in the Room
With ever declining social and health support structures, you know deep down, it’s all going to end badly.
If family is genuinely a priority in your life, then you are doing them a disservice by neglecting YOUR health.
Being the most caring and busiest parent you know, is not enough.
When the oxygen masks fall, there’s a reason you put YOURS on before anyone else.
Winter is Coming
Yip, you feel it in your bones, so what are you going to do about it?
No more indecisiveness or resolutions.
Everyone has the time; because it’s just a matter of priorities. Right?
End the frustration and channel your anger at positive change.
Secure your families health and security.
You know what needs doing and you WILL follow through this time.
Your friends and family are counting on YOU.
Get Back In the Driving Seat!
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