Ant or Grasshopper – How We Spend our Time

I recently gave a short presentation on how we choose to spend our time, our life – planning for the future versus living more in the moment. The old ant and grasshopper parable came to mind. Are you more like the hard-working ant who struggled all summer storing food for the winter, or more like the carefree grasshopper who hopped and chirped the summer away?

We often hear about how we aren’t saving enough, whether that’s for emergencies or for retirement. Not to mention how nearly impossible it is to do that with most incomes not keeping up with costs, among other financial challenges. While I certainly don’t want to minimize any of that, I’m choosing here to focus more on the psychological side of things.

What are we saving for in terms of wants and desires? What are we expecting of the the future? And what are we giving up to get there? What if next week the ant and the grasshopper both have massive insect coronaries and die? Who will have had the better life? Would it be easier to save for the future if that future were guaranteed? Continue reading

The Right Rock

Once again, it’s been a while since my last post. With the aim to write here more often, I’m going to talk about something from one of my little scraps of paper. You know, those scratchings of random thoughts that occur, well randomly. Not to give too much away I hope, but on this scrap is written, “Myth of Sisyphus.” And here’s me talking out loud.

Have you ever felt like you were trying too hard? That you were working too hard to try to make something happen? Force it it into being. Make it happen no matter how many stumbling blocks you come up against. You keep trying because it’s something you feel convinced that you want. Something you’re convinced is supposed to happen. It just hasn’t for some reason. A reason you peg as you simply haven’t tried hard enough. And if you keep on trying, you’ll get there, you’ll get it, whatever that elusive “it” may be. Continue reading