Cats & All That ™

Cats are exploratory creatures by nature. While they like to have a base they know they can come back to, they do like to explore and expand their territory. This explains why I have several cats that sleep around my house because my neighbor and I both feed about three cats that come around. One of these cats in particular has made friends with Jean-Claude (although she is still frightened of me.) In fact, during the freezing cold, Jean-Claude actually went out to look for her and make her come in the house. It was one of the sweetest, kindest acts of unselfishness I have seen.

However, cats are great at listening. And by this, I mean keeping their eyes and ears open to any changes in their environment. These changes could be a new cat that walked through, to new feeding times. Many of us,however, are not really good at this. We see changes and because of fear of the unknown, we clamp down and close our ears to anything that might be counter to our lives – even when we know that we desire change and actually ask for the change.

We also don’t do a good job of listening to the small changes in our life. Lasting change comes from consistency and small steps, rather than a large all at once change.

Koko expanded her exploratory territory very very slowly. First the backyard, then the neighbors yard and now, to my dismay, she feels comfortable going across the street. I see the progression of her confidence and can only try to mirror that in my own life.

Time is the one resource that equalizes everyone. No matter how much money or power you have, you get the same 24 hours a day that everyone else gets. Now you might be able to allocate resources to accomplish tasks for you, but those resources are trading in their time.

I recently created a dream board full of ideas and items I want to accomplish in my life time. Some are short-term, e.g. finish a book this week, and some are long-term (buy an apartment in Paris!). But one of the lessons that I have learned recently is to make time for your dreams. We all waste time. I saw a post that captured this perfectly.

In this case, it’s the trade-off between working out and playing Candy Crush (or in my case – Simpsons Tapped Out). I realized that I don’t want my life to be measured in increments of 8 hours waiting for Homer to complete a tasks, but I want it to be measured in actual, meaningful things.

Cats don’t have this problem of focus. They have multiple avenues for when they want to engage (or in the case of my cats – two houses, a grandma that spoils them, trees, outdoor friends, and a couple of dozen toys and the red laser 🙂

But when they are sleeping, they aren’t dreaming about work and how they have to complete that presentation.

When we are too busy, it can feel overwhelming and we actually shut down. The lesson I am learning is how to say – NO.