Three days, three months, three years. Some people say those are the timings when people think of quitting their job. I know a few people who quit their job on day three or four. It was in the third year in my first job when I thought of a different career path.
In last couple of years, I wrote about “New Year’s” resolution in March. The resolution for the year 2015 was “to ignite my intellectual curiosity“. The resolution for the year 2016 was “to visit a historical site once a month“. Three months should be long enough for many people to quit New Year’s resolution. If you have kept a resolution for three months, you may want to continue it longer, up to a year, or even longer.
In early January this year, I wrote about a “candidate” of New Year’s resolution, which is to mind my breath to be mindful. It’s been a little more than two months since then, and it turned out to be quite difficult. Mindful means to be “deliberately aware of your body, mind, and feelings in the present moment, in order to create a feeling of calm (Cambridge University Press, 2017)”. Whether you mind your breath or not, you won’t be choked, of course. But when you don’t mind your breath, your mind may be occupied by something unimportant or worthless. In fact, when I feel somehow stressed and uncomfortable, especially at work, I find myself not breathing comfortably and negative mind has emerged. To mind your breath is a good start to spend a mindful life. Trying it for a couple of month is just enough to find how difficult it is. Now the candidate has got the position.
I know my life style will change soon; I’ll go back to Canada and play a different role at work. I expect it to be stressful. Let’s see how I can (or cannot) keep calm there.
Combridge University Press. (2017, 3 16). Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved from Meaning of “mindful” in the English Dictionary: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mindful