As it’s Halloween, how about a horror story?

The story is from a post I found in a chilling subreddit called “Adulting”.

(enough to make anyone’s hair stand on end)

Here’s what user LadyTreeRoot had to say:

I just retired from a 36.5 year career. 

I feel like I'm coming out of a fog.  For the first time in decades, I have energy for hobbies.  I’m relaxed.  I’m told, "Every day is Saturday. Tomorrow is always Sunday". Well, that's great for me now but Jesus, I'm just now realizing how much I sacrificed to "be successful".  My jobs have always been intense with little left at the end of the day.  I thought it was all normal at the time.  No one treated me as if I had some wild imbalance. 

I look back on it all with a certain level of horror. 

And I'm embarrassed to admit how much I'm loving retirement because I don't know how our next generations are going to afford to retire - and that's unacceptable. 

The 'system' is broke.  How can we fix it? 

Yikes!

Living like a lifeless zombie for 35+ years is enough to give anyone the heebie-jeebies.

As for LadyTreeRoot’s claims about the broken system?

Who knows.

But I do see more horror around the corner. 

I don’t just mean the spiralling cost of living crisis & retirement concerns.  Forget all that for a moment. 

I mean the whole world is an out-and-out basket case right now.  Every month the planet lurches from one horror show to another and the current global turmoil makes A Nightmare on Elm Street look like Snow White.

This might sound rather gloomy.

But fortunately, Pumpkin, it doesn’t have to be.  There’s a solution to all this horror.

That solution?

Well clearly none of us can wave a wand like Harry Potter and banish these scary goings-on back to the Forbidden Forest. 

We cannot – most of the time – change what’s happening in the world.

But we can change how we relate to what’s happening.  How we feel about events in the outside world, our attitude & perspective towards them, and the actions we take despite them.

In a nutshell: 

It’s possible to recognise the horrors taking place (with your job, the economy, geopolitics or anything else) without letting them get under your skin.

To bring it back to Halloween:

It’s a bit like answering the door to a bunch of unruly, snotty-nosed urchins dressed as Superman, Buzz Lightyear & Thomas the Tank Engine, and, when they start yapping “trick or treat”, choosing not to have the bejesus scared out of you with a trick.

This same choice is available to all of us, whatever horror shows are taking place.

If you'd like to treat yourself to more calm & peace of mind, here’s where I spill the guts:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com

- Tom