When work feels overwhelming T-shirt
by Tom Warin
When work feels overwhelming T-shirt
(Busted Tees)
Sometimes all we need is a little perspective. Those of us who work in high-pressure, results-oriented jobs often lose sight of the big picture.
For example, I sell caricatures of politicians from the 1920's carved out of soap; talk about a cutthroat business! I get so caught up in worrying about shipments of soap, whether I've gotten the nose right on Calvin Coolidge and whether I have enough size 3 soap-gougers, that I forget to obsess about my own mortality.
I suggest the following exercise. Figure out at what point during the day you are at your most overwhelmed at work. For me, that's around 2pm when the expired shellfish I usually consume for lunch really start to kick in and mess up my digestive tract. That doesn't do my soap carving skills any good.
Set an alarm for that time and when it goes off, set aside 10 minutes to really focus on your impending demise. Imagine different scenarios under which you might expire, fantasize about how sad various attractive celebrities will be at your funeral (you should see how hard Angelina Jolie cries at my imaginary funerals), things like that.
Once you've gained a little perspective, you can continue your meaningless job.
Alternatively, make sure that you and your co-workers all wear this 
When work feels overwhelming T-shirt from those purveyors of philosophies both ancient and modern, Busted Tees
. That way you will never be far from a reminder that the clockwork of your life is inexorably winding down.
Unless you work alone, in which case you will have to position a mirror so that you can always see your chest, or some kind of web-cam. Look, I can't solve all of your problems for you: figure something out!
