Do you think you can get more done by rushing?
By always being a state of perpetual hurriedness?
What’s the goal, trying to get things done? Scratch them off your to-do list?
The goal is not to do more, but to get more done by doing less. I will give you a moment to read that sentence again and let it actually sink in.
Do you cramp too much in your lives?
Do you say YES to too many things, friends, colleagues, invites because you simply don’t know how to say no? Because you need to reciprocate? Because you don’t want to be rude?
And then you end up rushing to get everything done?
Trying to stay sane and in the process inducing stress and anxiety and possibly a multitude of life long illnesses?
For those with kids, sadly enough, not only are you always rushing yourself but you are also rushing you kids. Creating a sense of low-level anxiety in their little bodies from a very early age. (Yes, it is an actual thing)
Ask yourself, if your child wants to stop on the way to school, perhaps for 30 seconds, to look at a flower or an ant, is it so bad? Are you really going to get late? And even if you do, does it really matter?
Foster yours and your child’s curiosity and sense of wonder by slowing down and helping them to slow down.
Isn’t this what life is all about anyway… fun, curiosity, amazement and wonder?
Or is your life absolutely about getting more done and ticking an X number of boxes before you die?
Are you continually going to rush through life until there is no more life to live?
Did you really live a good life if you rushed through most of it and didn’t actually stop to enjoy, admire and appreciate the little things?
If this was done to you as a child by your parents, perhaps out of a lack of knowledge, don’t do it to your kids. And if you are doing this to yourself, due to a lack of self-awareness, please stop. Now
Enjoy the little things and stress less.
As Henry David Thoreau famously said “It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”
There is a breadth of literature written on the topic and if this has intrigued your thinking, I leave you with this short list of further reading.
- Unbusy; A Manifesto by Jonathan Fields
- How Not to Hurry by Leo Babauta (Blog post)
- Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal, Julie Li
- The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller, Jay Papasan