|
Start planning your escape
Friday, 6 October 2006
The film The Shawshank Redemption is a very good fable about the human condition. If you haven't seen it, I recommend going down to the local video store and grabbing a copy. It's based on the short novel Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King.
The lead character, Andy Dufresne, is thrown in prison at the start of the film after being falsely convicted of murdering his wife and her lover. His situation turns out to be even worse than expected, as he's subjected to ongoing abuse by guards and other prisoners over a long period.
Before being convicted, Andy worked as a banker and you soon discover he's a very resourceful man indeed. He begins organizing to do income taxes for the guards and warden in order to gain special favors.
Over what appears to be decades, Andy manages to make the best of his situation, helping the warden to enrich himself through money-laundering and other schemes. The climax of the film involves a carefully planned escape which Andy has been taking years to execute by chipping away at his cell wall. He manages to steal the money he's made for the warden and escape to Mexico.
While, obviously, very few of us will ever face a situation as desperate as Andy's, it's easy for anyone to see reflections of their own situation in his on-screen life. It can sometimes help to view the problems you face as a kind of prison into which you've been thrown.
Perhaps your financial situation is desperate, or your love-life sucks, or your health is poor. Whatever the circumstances, you can feel as if you're being held in them against your will. And much like being in prison, there's often no easy opportunity for escape.
Most people, like most prisoners, simply give up and come to feel helpless and impotent. But the resourceful start scheming and working from day one to chip away at improving things. They realize there are few fast and easy solutions to their problems, but that answers do exist - even if they're unpalatable ones. They're willing to patiently plan, work towards and execute their escape from the situation that binds them.
So the bankrupt starts the long, slow process of getting back on top of her finances. The loveless overcome the hurdle of shyness to meet people. And the unhealthy make day-to-day efforts to exercise and eat better.
Like a desperate prisoner chipping away at the cell-wall, they can see an opportunity for escape and are willing to work at it no matter how long it takes.
If you find yourself imprisoned in a situation you would prefer to be rid of, start taking steps to break out. Realize that the path to freedom may be long and difficult - but also is almost certainly worthwhile. Like Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption, draw on your own inner-resourcefulness to overcome your negative circumstances, no matter how hopeless they may appear.
 | Take the initiative in establishing new relationships | | The world is filled with people who are dissatisfied with the state of their relationships. They think they haven't got enough others in their lives, or else they believe the others they have aren't up to scratch. Whether it's friendships that are missing or something more, a lack of satisfactory relationships is a common complaint. |  | Improvement usually requires suffering | | We all want to be better people. We want to be smarter, wiser, stronger and more beautiful. Look at any magazine rack in any supermarket, and you'll see that self-improvement is on a lot of people's minds. |  | My favourite investment books | | I've been getting a few emails recently asking which investment books I would recommend. Obviously there's a vast array of good books out there on this topic and I haven't read them all. |  | Understanding the basis of your emotions | | We are emotional creatures whether we like it or not. There is a popular idea that emotions are irrational and the intellect rational. We are supposed to aim to use our intellect and ignore our emotions, like Mr Spock, or so some would have us believe. |  | A lot of success and failure is compounding | | Why is it that some people get so successful that they just seem to grow in strength every year, while others sink their lives deeper and deeper into the abyss? I think the answer is that much of success and failure is compounding. The good things you did yesterday can be built upon, while the bad things you did have to be dealt with. | | If you work and take risks, it's possible to build a good life for yourself | | When I consider my life at the moment, it's really pretty good. I'm happily married, make plenty of money, and live in my favorite place in the world. For years now, I've been in a position where I can do pretty much whatever I want. It wasn't always that way though. | | How to start a conversation with someone | | Breaking the ice and starting to talk to someone can be very difficult. Someone you've never spoken to before can seem big and scary. Here are some ways of getting people talking that I've figured out. | | Ideas are easy, implementing them is hard | | I've know a lot of intelligent people in my time - some of them highly intelligent. Yet many of them aren't much more successful than average. How come? |  | A neat trick for dealing with anxiety | | When I was younger, I used to get anxious a lot. I think this is partly to do with the fact that being a teenager is just a stressful time, but also because I hadn't learned to deal with anxiety. | | Success is like fishing | | When most people look back on their lives and particularly which parts of them were successful, they’re often surprised at how these successes came about. More often than not, the opportunities we expect to be fantastic turn out to be not worth the time we invest in them; while those we expect to amount to nothing can turn into the greatest of our lives. |
New articles are being added all the time, so make sure you bookmark Paul's Tips and come back.
|
|