I recently watched the movie Click, a film that surrounds Michael Newman (Adam Sandler), who becomes increasingly frustrated with the world. He works extremely hard as an architect, so much so that he neglects his wife and children. He argues that once he’s promoted, he’ll be able to delegate work to his employees and therefore have more time for his family. He then stumbles across a warehouse to the rear of the Bed Bath & Beyond store, in which Morty (Christopher Walken) works. Morty gifts Michael a universal remote control that allows him to fast forward, rewind, pause and skip parts of his life. Morty warns Michael against skipping forward through parts of his life with a useful metaphor.

What’s your pot of gold? Is there a chance it could just be a bowl of cereal when you get it?

There’s a famous cereal in America called Lucky Charms, which features as its mascot a leprechaun. Leprechauns are famous for forever chasing rainbows to retrieve the pot of gold that sits at the end. Morty humorously makes thepoint that on the Lucky Charms cereal box, the leprechaun gets to the end of the rainbow, only to find a bowl of cereal.

Here, Morty is advising Michael against yearning for the future, so much so that you’re willing to skip ahead only to find that what you were yearning for (in Michael’s case a promotion) was not nearly as magical as you had imagined it to be. We all look back on our lives with meaningful nostalgia. The nostalgia we feel does not surround the amount of work we did or thetime we spent at the office, but of time with loved ones. By using this image of the leprechaun, we can analyse our own lives to gauge if we are missing the present by yearning for some goal, aspiration or purchase in the future. Are you thinking in this way?: “I’ll have more time for family once I get this job,” “I’ll travel once I make more money,” “I’ll work on myself when I have more time.” If so, it’s best to ask yourself why you are yearning for the future and missing the present? Is it worth it? What’s your pot of gold? Is there a chance it could just be a bowl of cereal when you get it?

Keep On Struggling

Gregor

Song I’m Enjoying - Present Tense by Pearl Jam

I came across this song via the incredible Netflix documentary-series The Last Dance. It’s emotional lyrics and effective, crescendo finish make it a great workout song.

App I’ve Started Using - Blinkist

If you’re like me and have ever thought: “I’ll never have enough time to read all the books I want” then despair no more. Blinkist is an innovative app that features a massive range of books that have been summarised into smaller versions so that you can get the gist of a book you want to read or get a better idea if that book is worth reading fully. You can either read the summary or listen to them. I listened to an 18 minute summary of Wim Hof’s The Wim Hof Method today and found it extremely useful.

Find Blinkist in your App Store now.

Quote to Ponder

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all - Peter Drucker

References

1) Image Credit - Rawpixel

2) Blinkist Image - Wikipedia