I don’t know much about cows, but I’ve been told that to get maximum production from a cow, she needs to have a regular routine. The more disruptions in a cow’s routine, the less milk she produces.
This concept applies to humans also. Life needs to have a routine. Most of it needs to be predictable. Predictability and stability mixed with goals and adventures can lead to a great existence.
This theory especially applies to children. If their lives stay secure and follow a regular routine, they have a better chance of thriving. Routine, habit, predictable, stable, and secure are all good conditions in the life of a child. These are conditions that can maximize excellent results as a child develops. Unfortunately, not all children have this opportunity.
Just as children badly need these conditions in their upbringing, so do adults.
In life we are always in one of three positions: entering a storm, in a storm, or leaving a storm. It is an unfortunate aspect of living life. Our goal is to be prepared before the next storm hits. Stability best equips us for the storms in our lives and minimizes their impact.
I believe that we all strive to have a stable existence. If you wake up each day worried about whether you will have food to eat, losing your home, that your spouse may be having an affair, or that you might be fired when you get to work, you are living in a very insecure world. Each minute of your life you are anxious about what awaits around the next corner. You are living life minute to minute.
In the theater production/movie “Fiddler on the Roof,” Dairyman Tevye begins the movie with the song “Tradition.” The message of the song is the importance of tradition. Traditions create predictability. They provide a returning point which provides consistency and stability.
The “Fiddler” story is about what happens when tradition meets change, something we all experience. I often say to my wife that, like the fiddler on the roof, in my life I am just trying to keep my balance on the roof while striking out a meaningful tune with my fiddle.
Stability is a healthy relationship with God and your spouse. It is minimal issues with your children and extended family and with your employment. It is the gift of health and an abundance of finances. Regardless of social economic issues, it is a meaningful quality of life.
If everything is in order, then you have a solid foundation upon which to do great things. Instead, most of us live our lives just trying to keep our balance and trying to strike out a meaningful tune while handling day to day issues.
There are many benchmarks that can be used to measure stability. Financial stability frees individuals from bondage. Physical stability increases quality of life. Marital stability allows individuals to spend more time helping others outside the marriage. Spiritual stability allows a person be able to overcome failures by knowing how their story ends.
Routines provide consistency, but can also create boredom if there is no joy or fulfilment in them. Sometimes old routines need to give way to new ones. Likewise, past traditions can be kept, replaced, or supplemented with new traditions. Either way, stability provides the opportunity for change.
In other words, by living a stable existence in as many areas as possible as discussed above, you are freed up to do great things for others. Others includes family members, friends, community members, and even causes on the other side of the world.
Your life in a stable mode allows you to give to others. You can’t give someone something you don’t first have. Your lack of stability requires you to use your time and energy on trying to get your life in order and it is hard to make a difference externally when all your time and resources are being used fighting internal issues.
Another word that can be used for stability is “peace.” Are you at peace with your existence? If so, great! Pass your blessings on to others. If not, what is keeping you off balance and awake at night? Is what is causing you to lose sleep about yourself? Or is it about touching and changing others? These are two entirely different concepts, each of which may keep your eyes open in the middle of the night.
It is easy to target stability and to say it is a goal on our radar screens. It is another thing to have your life in order enough to accomplish this.
It is also possible to be stable in every area of your life except one and the lack of stability in that one area can cause you to be off balance in every other area.
My challenge to you today is to come as close to accomplishing a stable existence as you are able. The less effort you have to spend on stability in your own world, the more you have available to make a difference in the lives of others.
Ask yourself the question “What is causing instability in my life?” Answer it honestly. Maybe there is nothing you can do about it. If so, maybe you just need to learn how to accept it. Or maybe there is something you can do to conquer or remove the energy or financial drain holding you down.
An eagle with a weight around its ankles will never fly as high as he was created to fly.
Assess and then act. Your family, your friends, your fellow workers, and your community are all counting on you.
Just a thought...
Rick Kraft is a motivational speaker, a syndicated columnist, a published author, and an attorney. To submit comments, contributions, or ideas, e-mail to rkraft@kraftlawfirm.org or write to P.O. Box 850, Roswell, New Mexico, 88202 - 0850.
