Читать книгу Hector Finds Time - Francois Lelord - Страница 10

HECTOR noticed that, if he asked them, almost all the people he saw had two kinds of worries.

Sometimes, it was the fear that time was passing too quickly, which is quite a distressing fear to have because you can’t do much about the speed of time. It’s like being on a horse that gallops on without heeding you, which had actually happened to Hector once, and it had given him a real fright.

At other times, it was the feeling that time was passing too slowly, and that … well, that’s like sitting on a donkey that doesn’t want to budge. Of course, it was mostly youngsters who told Hector that, or else very unhappy people who were waiting for things to get better and for whom every day seemed to last for weeks.

Hector thought that in order to help people who were worried about time he could suggest some little exercises to make them think. Because, when you’re a psychiatrist, you can obviously just tell people what they need to do to get better, but the chances are they won’t listen properly. It’s better to help them discover by themselves what would be good for them. Suggesting little exercises to make people think was a method favoured by Hector and quite a few of his colleagues.

Hector took out his notebook and got ready to make some notes. First, he thought of Fernand and wrote:

Time Exercise No. 1: Measure your life in dogs.

This exercise might help people to realise that it was better not to wait too long to do the things you really wanted to do. On the other hand, it could make you even more worried about time passing, and especially about how much of it you had left. Was it such a good exercise then, after all? Hector remembered having learnt at school that some philosophers thought a good life was one which involved thinking every day that one day it would all end. There was even a philosopher who had music played for him every evening at bedtime. Singers would gather at the foot of his bed and sing, ‘He lived!’, as if it was his funeral. But, as Hector knew, some people are a bit crazy, even some philosophers (and don’t tell anyone this, but even some psychiatrists too).

Hector thought of Little Hector.

Time Exercise No. 2: Make a list of what you wanted to do when you were little and dreaming of being grown up.

Again, this could help spur you on to do the things you really wanted to do. But it could just as easily discourage you by making you think it was too late. Hector would have liked to find an exercise which worked for everyone.

Hector thought of Sabine and wrote:

Time Exercise No. 3: Over the course of one day, count how much time you have for yourself. Sleeping doesn’t count (unless it’s at the office).

It was still very hard to tell what the results of this exercise would be. Some people would realise that they didn’t have a moment to themselves and that all their time was spent on other people – he was thinking of Sabine – and others would realise that they had nothing else to do but enjoy themselves or think about themselves. But Hector had already noticed that this didn’t always make those people happy. In fact some of them even wanted to kill themselves!

With his three exercises, Hector was well aware that his list was a bit on the short side. Perhaps, if he kept listening to the people who came to see him, it would give him other ideas.

And if that wasn’t enough? Well, there would always be time to think about that later.