Shaun Cadwalleder
We were having a bit of fun in the office the other day – challenging each other with riddles.
The usual teasers came up…
“What has six faces, but does not wear makeup and has twenty-one eyes, but cannot see?”
“You can see me in water, but I never get wet. What am I?”
No cheating you guys!
There was one riddle that really resonated with me…
“What belongs to you but is used more by others?”
The answer was your name; however, one of my colleagues provided a much more interesting and philosophical answer – “your patience?”
He’s quite right isn’t he?
Your patience does belong to you doesn’t it!?
So why do we allow others to control it?
When you think about this more deeply, there are a lot of things that belong to us, but we quite often surrender them to others.
And these aren’t just any old things, they’re the most precious things in life – our time, energy, thoughts and patience. We can control them all, yet we often give them up.
And for what? To please people, to avoid conflict, to show that we’re ambitious?
Again, we revisit the famous quote that Gaz referred to in his minimalism article:
We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.
Just remember that you’re in control, you have the power and people can use your name but they cannot control your life!
