Too Much is Enough

How do you live your life? In different stages? Maybe it’s time to look at what is most important for you.

New Beginnings
The poet William Blake once said: “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom”. Clearly most new beginnings are marked by distinctive excess. It starts the day we are born with excessive sleep, dependency and crying as our only mean of communication. As teenagers we sleep excessively little, talk too much and have absolutely no patience. Independency creeps in and we certainly don’t need anyone to tell us what to do.

Time Rich / Cash Starved
Adolescence arrives and eventually we leave the nest to pursue our own life. Some study others work to finance a gap year. Finally freedom and suddenly our new reality hits home: Budgets! And often a budget far too limited to fulfil any of our dreams of life in excess and luxury. Suddenly we are time rich / cash starved.

Serial Dating
After years of serial dating and partying on a budget in our 20’s we finally start to take life serious. Still most new encounters with the opposite sex kicks off with excessive intake of alcohol and too much talk about nothing and we may start to ask: How Many Frogs Does It Take? One thing is for sure we don’t want to settle for second best.

Time Starved / Cash Rich
By our 30’s we have maybe landed our ‘dream job’ or ‘married the one’ or even better: combined both and having kids. However, the price is often: too much work, too little time and excessive stress accompanied by worries and self-hate. We rush blindly into a time starved/cash rich life and unhealthy lifestyles – too much eat and drink and not enough sleep and exercise.

The Meaning of Life
In our 40’s I guess many of us ask the biggest question of them all: What’s the meaning of Life? Do I go faster and get material fulfilment or do I slow down and pursue my spiritual journey. The choice is ours. Finding happiness is not just a material route but an all encompassing holistic one. Suddenly we find, nothing in excess is our new modus operandi.

Count Down
Reaching 50 it’s time to take status of our options for our future selves? Tired, out of shape, unfulfilled or energetic, in shape and fulfilled? I realised that we have a choice. In my early 40’s with life in the fast lane, no quality time and excess stress I decided to scale down in all areas except happiness and love. It’s the best thing I have ever done. I now exercise, eat well, read, relax despite a very active life as a professional. It took me over 40 years to figure out that often enough is more than enough and perhaps a bit too little is exactly the right amount. Still, when it comes to love and happiness Mae West had a point when she said “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful”.

Images
1. Restaurant in Oslo
2. Eugine and loaf of bread
3. Kids watching a film
4. Jazz exhibition in Paris
5. Anne Lise Kjaer reading in Nice

Article: Oestrogen (DK), April 2009