Thoughts that closed my year

Slowly letting time crawl

My last three long holidays in the sun were 17, 19 and 16 days respectively and they all seemed to be well gone before I knew it had really started.

About 6 weeks ago, I finally booked my Christmas holiday for 18 days now extended to 19, however, I decided to condition my thinking not to anticipate such as to allow the days to my holiday rush by because that would make my holiday rush by too.

So, each day as next Wednesday arrives would be a full 24 hours of day and night until my holiday begins as 48 hour days – I really do believe my conditioning would allow my holiday to feel long, relaxing and fulfilled.

I had already phoned ahead at the hotel and the manager has prepared for me the absence of stress and the presence of ease that I am so accustomed to.

Closing the year of 42

Meanwhile, I also closed the year today, for about 12 years I have endeavoured to close the working year on my birthday if it falls on a weekday or the last working day before it, if it falls in a weekend.

This time, it is a Sunday, I sometimes try to think about the next year in the last 10 days of the year but I do not think I would exercise myself too much – I have had a good year and I am hopeful that next year would be better despite the upheavals that surround us.

Roll over payroll

One other area where my conditioned thinking came in handy was I finally decided I wanted to concentrate on what I professionally do; my payroll company had been an unnecessary distraction with their levity, incompetence and unprofessional activity.

Much as I tried to make them understand that my reasons for using a payroll company was to allow me concentrate on my core competences, their activities were heaping stress on my ordered existence – I finally decided the situation was untenable and the moment I began to think about getting another payroll company to act on my behalf, I was already feeling better.

Back to square one on my terms

I put in a request and informed the payroll company that they would either be brought in and told to polish up their act or I would be assigned a better organisation – yesterday, I was contacted by a new organisation – back to square one, but now, I lay down the rules of engagement. I am not half fussy; I just like things to be right.

The fact is stress is caused by the things you cannot bring under control or the things you allow to fester beyond tolerance – my patience was tried to the point of distraction, but this was something I could seek to control and bring under control.

Once the wording of my email conveyed the idea that I wanted to concentrate on the work I do for my client rather than bother about the pennies turning in pounds that fail to land in time in my numbered Dutch account, I had persuaded my client of a better perspective and sunk into meditative repose – the days are long and refreshing, even so shall my holidays shall be long and relaxing.