Final words

Josip Loncaric

Our society and our world is becoming increasingly time poor, and there is no end in sight. We were given an opportunity to reflect on life without many of the things that we took for granted, including playing sport for a large chunk of 2020 and - to a lesser degree - 2021. 

Has it changed us?

Do we appreciate small things more than before, or do we long for the material things that we felt we could never quite get enough of before this global pandemic?

We will finish this second edition of our newsletter with a little passage from a groundbreaking book in the hope that we take note of what truly fulfills us in life.

 

For me, and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is “I didn’t get enough sleep.” The next one is “I don’t have enough time.” Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it. We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining, or worrying about what we don’t have enough of.… We don’t have enough exercise. We don’t have enough work. We don’t have enough profits. We don’t have enough power. We don’t have enough wilderness. We don’t have enough weekends. Of course, we don’t have enough money—ever. We’re not thin enough, we’re not smart enough, we’re not pretty enough or fit enough or educated or successful enough, or rich enough—ever. Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we’re already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something. And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds race with a litany of what we didn’t get, or didn’t get done, that day. We go to sleep burdened by those thoughts and wake up to the reverie of lack.… What begins as a simple expression of the hurried life, or even the challenged life, grows into the great justification for an unfulfilled life.

("The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are" by Brené Brown)

We hope that you enjoy this newsletter and we would love to have some feedback from you about what you would like us to cover in future editions.

Please email us at: Josip.Loncaric@education.vic.gov.au