Hurry Up and Slow Down!

One of the things I have been learn­ing this year is to be okay with slow­ing down a bit and not being in such a hur­ry. In oth­er words, be okay with not get­ting to every­thing and being read­i­ly avail­able ²⁴⁄₇.

It’s a tough thing these days, isn’t it? Maybe you can relate…

One of the soft­wares I have used for years is called Base­camp, and I real­ly love the own­ers’ phi­los­o­phy: ​“Work can wait.” I’ve tried to inten­tion­al­ly remind myself of this, and have made changes in my dai­ly life to help me not bring work home with me. Turn­ing off noti­fi­ca­tions, social media breaks… All are impor­tant, but I still find myself rush­ing around and say­ing, ​“I’m busy, busy, busy!”

Aware­ness is the first step

The good news is that I am aware of the prob­lem, and that I have some addic­tions that need help: work, tech­nol­o­gy, and just stay­ing busy. These are all things that I have iden­ti­fied in my life that need to change.

Our cul­ture doesn’t help, either. Being busy is cel­e­brat­ed and worn like a badge of hon­or, with peo­ple prac­ti­cal­ly apol­o­giz­ing for tak­ing a day off or explain­ing why they’re on vaca­tion. That’s just not how it should be, and it isn’t healthy or sustainable. 

My wife encour­aged me recent­ly to read a book she just fin­ished called, ​“The Ruth­less Elim­i­na­tion of Hur­ry.” As I write this blog, I’m a third of the way through the book and find­ing it very help­ful and encour­ag­ing that there is hope for a guy like me.

One of the things I have already learned while read­ing is that every human has the same amount of time in a day: 24 hours! We don’t need more time in the day because we’ve all been giv­en the same amount. Here are a cou­ple of the things we DO need to do:

1. Learn where to pull back

2. Know our limit

Lim­i­ta­tions aren’t weak­ness­es. In fact, know­ing and embrac­ing them is one of the first steps to slow­ing down and learn­ing to enjoy this life we’ve been given. 

I am ear­ly on in this jour­ney, but am com­mit­ted to tak­ing the steps need­ed to be health­i­er all around in my faith and life. I plan on start­ing by lim­it­ing time on devices, like scrolling social media, and turn­ing off noti­fi­ca­tions after a cer­tain time. I am also plan­ning on tak­ing more walks with my wife! I want to enjoy more moments with my fam­i­ly and cus­tomers instead of feel­ing like I need to be more respon­si­ble and take on more work, suc­cess, etc. 

No work, email, or mes­sages… It all can wait.