Put your life in order and be happy: Control your entropy

By Edgar Hernández Cancino Quintero

Enjoying life and achieving happiness are not only a matter of wishing for these to happen and waiting for the universe to concede it, but also, it’s about having the willpower to control the chaos (entropy) that surrounds us every day and has an impact on the essential axes of life: health, human relations, work and money. It is necessary to make

• Language: English
• Publisher: Innovación Editorial Lagares de México, S.A. de C.V.
• Release date: May 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9786074108453

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE: Entropy and Life

Yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is just a vision. However, when we do things right in the present, yesterday becomes a dream filled with happiness and tomorrow turns into a vision of hope. Today life smiles at me, my health is great, I get along with my family and with those around me, I have reached an emotional and economic stability and my wife, and I have a loving and strong relationship. I like my job and enjoy life..

Kalidasa

Yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is just a vision. However, when we do things right in the present, yesterday becomes a dream filled with happiness and tomorrow turns into a vision of hope. Today life smiles at me, my health is great, I get along with my family and with those around me, I have reached an emotional and economic stability and my wife, and I have a loving and strong relationship. I like my job and enjoy life.

Before, everything was a chaos, I felt terrible, I argued with my wife, my children and everybody else. I had debts, I felt stressed, afraid, insecure and angst. To sum up, I was not happy.

How did all this change?

Controlling the entropy in my life, creating order, getting rid of chaos

Change didn’t come from learning a well-kept secret, or by power of attraction, nor by wishing for it. It came from having the will to make the right decisions and doing the right, conscious, intelligent, congruent, adequate, and timely actions according to my circumstances.

If you don’t enjoy life because you are having problems -just as I was-, this book is for you. Please allow me to share my story; I assure you it’ll be worth your while because it might transform your life and the life of your dear ones.

My story

On the way to chaos

I knew I had to go to bed early because of the important meeting I had the following day. I needed to rest so I could feel good in the morning, but I couldn’t because my thoughts in my head wouldn’t allow it.

I must land that contract! If I do, with my commission I could pay part of my debts! Well, at least I could pay my credit card… maybe the one I owe the least amount of money…or maybe I can pay installments on each one or pay the due monthly fees at the children’s school and maybe pay one month in advance; or maybe I save that money for the mortgage payment next month. This has to go right! It’s time my luck changes!, my mind could stop picturing every scenario. I saw the clock in my studio, and it was almost 2:00a.m. and I was nowhere near being sleepy.

I walked to the kitchen, opened the fridge, and looked for something to eat. I found spaghetti, put some on a plate and pureed ketchup on it. I turned on the television and pressed the remote several times until I finally stopped at a French movie. I got hooked on the plot and, when I looked at the clock again, it was already 3:30 a.m. I stood up, went to the fridge again, took some horchata water (made from rice) and, although it was too sweet, I drank two glasses. I went to my bedroom and turned on the bathroom light without paying attention to the fact that it might disturb my wife’s sleep. I went to bed thinking of ways to spend my commission money because this time I was certain that I would make the sale.

Laura woke up when I turned on the bathroom light.

— What’s wrong? – she asked.

— Nothing, nothing’s wrong, go back to sleep.

She hugged her pillow and saw the digital clock that, with big red numbers, indicated the time: 3:45 a.m. She felt she hadn’t slept at all. As usual, for one thing or another, she had gone to bed tired and late. Soon she drifted off and, though two hours went by before the alarm went off, it seemed that she slept for only a few minutes.

Laura didn’t want to get up, she was very sleepy, but she had to and did it in a bad mood. She put on her robe and walked to the boys’ bedroom: Jaime, 12, and Carlos, 7. She woke them up in a sweet and soft way, but they didn’t open their eyes; so, she shook them and yelled:

—Wake up already!

Then, she entered Claudia’s room. She is our eldest.

— Claudia, – she said in a low voice so as not to wake Sara, our youngest. — Claudia, it’s getting late, you must get up.

— Yes, mom, — answered our first-born, but she stayed in bed for a few more minutes.

Laura made breakfast and called everybody to the table. Everybody rushed to the kitchen.

—Alberto, – she said —, can you take the kids to school? Juanita hasn’t arrived and Sara is sleeping.

— I can’t, – was my response, together with an explanation that I was already late.

— Oh well, – Laura told me. — I’ll take them, but I will have to wake up the little one. By the way, I don’t have money for buying food, I’m going to the supermarket to get some, so give me some money.

— I don’t have any; use your credit card – I said.

— But it’s almost at its limit – she argued.

— It doesn’t matter; use it – I insisted.

Laura got dressed as fast as she could and took our kids to school, taking our youngest along who was half asleep. It took her almost one hour to come back home and she expected to find Juanita at the door, but that day Juanita didn’t come to work. That really got her in a bad mood because the day promised to be a hard one. Good-bye to the gym because she had no one to leave Sara with, and of course, there wasn’t going to be any help to do the housework.

When I got up, I barely had enough time to get to my appointment. I took a fast shower, and, while I was shaving, I took a glance at the image in the mirror and noticed the toll of my inability to sleep. I told myself, without any real conviction, that I should do exercise because I didn’t like the belly and the love handles I had.

—I’ll start tomorrow, – I told myself.

I rushed downstairs to have breakfast and that was when Laura asked me to give her money for the supermarket. I had to tell her, regretfully, to pay with the credit card. I knew, without her having to remind me, that we had reached the limit. But I didn’t have any other choice, nor cash. I said good-bye to Laura in a hurry and left for my appointment. I drove for about 35 minutes and had three cigarettes on the way…maybe four.

Even though I drove very fast, when I got to the restaurant, my customer was already there and that got me a little nervous and upset. I took a hold of all my experience, showing him all the technical and financial benefits of purchasing the machines, and in the end, I succeeded at my mission. The proposal was approved, and the order signed, and my twenty-five thousand pesos commission was coming, and adding it to my salary, I could pay house expenses for a whole month.

I majored in Mechanical Engineering and graduated with very good grades, and lots of dreams of success. I specialized in energy savings and managed to get a job at a very important company at the sales department. Throughout my working years I’ve studied many technical actualization courses and motivation as part of my job training. My work consists of selling devices for steam trapping, which are pieces of equipment necessary in the industry therefore, with a lot of demand and a great market.

At 44 years of age, my life is a daily struggle to get a sale, in other words, my commission, so money, enough to meet my family’s needs. However, it seems that lately what I earn is not only to meet these needs, but also to pay several debts that I have acquired, mainly, because I’ve bought things on credit for the house and the family, things which are normally unnecessary and were just to indulge myself, or because they were on sale, o simply because they were easy to buy on credit. Until now, my abilities and enthusiasm have helped me geta head and pay my debts. Nevertheless, I don’t always pay on time and occasionally stay a month behind.

We bought