THIS week Judge Jules (not a real judge) graces our pages with poetry, reflection, wisdom and almost a TV out of the hotel window moment when she threatens to delete her Facebook account. As the advert says…. Just Do It!
‘What is this world if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.’ Whilst I am not into poetry the words of William Henry Davies were etched into my brain at 14 years old by my English Literature teacher, who at the time insisted the class learnt the poem parrot fashion.
Fast forward two decades and I find myself dwelling on these words increasingly so. Where has it gone? It’s now May, five months into 2018, and I find myself thinking about how quickly time has gone, yet how much has changed and been achieved since I sung the New Year in. Yet there is still so much to achieve before the year is out.
Getting a work/life balance is a challenge and I am convinced I am not alone. I have numerous friends whom I witness in a similar predicament. Even this week I could identify with my friend who had recently given birth, yet continues to run her business (having taken two weeks maternity leave) and the joy that she had actually managed to wash her hair before work. Whilst dry shampoo is a life saver it does not beat the luxury of the real thing.
I often find myself wasting time on Facebook and getting drawn in to both the positive and negative posts. Another of my friend’s (yes I have at least two) has recently deleted Facebook. It is a modern day addiction that robs us of our time and productivity, and at times, pollutes the mind and soul for some.
Time is a precious asset. Surrounding yourself with good people can preserve this. My grandfather often used to say ‘Be careful who you mix with as they will have a great influence on your journey through life.’ I am now starting to realise as to what he meant by this which without doubt has contributed towards my success to date.
As a legal professional much of my day to day activities with clients is to help them deal with or get over challenges or issues that they find themselves faced with as a direct result of the company they have kept.
We all have it within us to make better use of our time to learn and achieve more and to choose the relationships that will lift us (whether romantic, friendship, business or otherwise) and I aim to focus on nurturing the relationships with my ‘core’ favourites in coming months.
The message here is not a question of lack of time but more a lack of priority. I view the bad or less savoury relationships I have encountered as lessons learnt, hard lessons at times, granted, but as long as we learn and move on to better things then I feel we have achieved and can impart our life lessons on the good people we surround ourselves with.
Life certainly becomes easier I have found when you delete the negative folk from it. I may even be as brave as my friend and delete the Facebook app from my phone…well one day perhaps.
Juliet Phillips-James is a Solicitor/Director of Gomer Williams & Company Ltd and writes for Llanelli Online
