Fortune Cookie Friday: “And a Little Child Shall Lead Them”

How many of you remember the good ol’ days of sitting in front of the TV, watching cartoons, and eating all the marshmallows out of your cereal? Those were the days when your schedule was full with appointments like, riding your bike, climbing a tree, playing baseball at the park, and jumping through the refreshing water of a sprinkler.

If you still live like this, either you’re still a child, or you’re playing hooky from your responsibilities. Adults have many responsibilities. If you are a business owner, you will likely have some additional ones. I know I do. Adults have to go to work, pay the bills, make dinner, file their taxes…you get the point. It can be frustrating, and probably explains why adults have more stress related health issues than children.

It seems like adults make everything more complicated than it needs to be. We have so many tax laws that we have to comb through long complicated forms, just to file annually. If we want to buy a house, we have to find a real estate agent, get a loan from the bank, and then haggle for the purchase. Don’t get me started on all of the paperwork involved.

Even the laws of our country have gotten more complicated. The Constitution of the United States was four sheets of parchment. If you include the Preamble and all 27 Amendments (remember there were originally only ten), it comes out to 20 typed pages. Our Affordable Care Act is hundreds of pages long. When you include all of the regulations associated with it, it becomes thousands of pages long.

It never amazes me when adults look over the obvious solution to solve a problem. You may have heard the story of a tractor-trailer stuck under a low bridge. The height clearance for the bridge was approximately six inches less than the truck height. As traffic sat, backed up behind the truck, officials scratched their heads on how to move the truck. A child in one of the waiting cars asked, “Why don’t they just let the air out of the tires?” Letting the air out of the tires would reduce the truck height enough to fit under the bridge. A simple solution solved the problem.

We all need to take some time to live a little more simply. Oh, you still need to get all of your work done, and you certainly have to pay those bills, but you can also do some “childish” activities to keep you grounded. Go to the park and ride the teeter-totter. Get some coloring books and crayons, and get creative. No one will care if you go outside of the lines. You can even eat your favorite kid’s cereal, while watching your favorite show. Just make sure you get two boxes, if you don’t intend on sharing with your own kids.

Those simple moments will center your thoughts, so you can get back to the grind without losing your mind.