William N. Thompson

Over the Top: Solutions to the Sisyphus Dilemmas of Life William N. Thompson

If your life feels like: You are going ninety miles an hour down a dead-end street... The best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep... What goes up must always come down... You are just spinning wheels but getting nowhere... You are constantly reinventing the wheel... For each step forward you are taking two steps backwards... You are hitting you head against a brick wall... You are always going back to square one... You are living the definition of insanity, doing the same things over and over and expecting different results... You are living the gambler's prayer: 'Lord, tonight let me break even, I really need the money... You are pushing big rocks up a mountain, only to see them roll back down again--...then the story of Sisyphus may be your story too. Then you should explore opportunities to break the patterns of frustration that surround so much of your existence. In classical literature the character of Sisyphus got his 'just deserts.' He was a minor league trickster who played around a little too much in the big leagues. Characters the likes of Zeus and Hades did not care for the games he played, and when they finally captured him they assigned to him his fate. For eternity he would push a big rock up a mountain. However, just as he was about to reach the peak and achieve the goal of pushing the rock over the top, it would slip from his hands and roll back down. He would then have to go back down, retrieve the rock, and begin the push anew, only to realize the same results. For eternity, now, he has been pushing that rock. His story is a metaphor for modern organizational living. We are all pushing rocks. Can we achieve another result, or are we condemned to push for eternity never to achieve our goals? This book examines the Sisyphus dilemma and suggests ways of coping with our duties, achieving a contentment, but also achieving an accomplishment of results--seeing the rock go over the top. And CELEBRATING our victories small and large.