Crash! A gajillion pieces of glass are all over my floor and in my flip flops. While jumping into the massive undesirable task of dusting all my glassware I ended up breaking a glass which cost me time and the loss of a glass. Why? Because I was in a hurry. Hurry is often a culprit for a great deal of loss in my life. A few other examples off the tip of my brain are these:
• Stepping on the accelerator only to be pulled over and given a ticket.
• When typing in a hurry and not reading what I typed, I make mistakes and have to go back and correct it.
• When teaching and not taking the time to explain details to my students, mistakes were made that took more time to undo.
• By not taking time with God, I sacrificed my peace for the entire day.
Hurry is moving by habit rather than by design. It is motion of the body without engaging thought. So hurry is simply leaving out that annoying step of thinking before we act. Obviously we would not hurry if it didn’t reward us in some way. It makes us feel like we are winning over our constraint of a 24 hour day. Hurrying gives us a false sense of control over our day.
Saving time by slowing down is counterintuitive. This reminds me of so many of the life lessons Jesus taught which are upside down to what our culture teaches. He taught that to be a good leader you must become a servant. He taught that if we want to be first, we must put ourselves last. He taught that it is through sacrificing control of our lives that we will truly find it. So in that same reverse way of thinking, if we want to save time, maybe we should slow down.
Time is such a precious commodity. We can’t really save it because we will have only the days that we have been given. Yes, we think we can squeeze in more activity by hurrying…sometimes. And it is really peace that is sacrificed for this false feeling of beating the clock. If you have ever been on a vacation where you overbooked yourself and ran from one engagement to another, you know this is true.
How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals?
So how do we deal with an overbooked schedule without sacrificing our peace? The answer is to STOP, to say NO, purge our calendar and let go of the things that are less important. Give ourself permission to do less. To do that correctly, we must prioritize. Ask a few questions. What is most important to me? Is it my relationship to God? Is it my relationship with my family? Will this activity matter in 10 years? If the answers to these questions are yes, then it should be a priority in your day.
But what about those things that must be done? Someone has to make a living, do the cleaning, pay the bills, and feed the family. This list of things will become secondary in our priorities.
To deal more efficiently with the “must-dos” maybe we can reconsider our choices in each. For example, is there a closer place of work that will put time back in your day? Maybe that long commute for higher pay is a poor trade. Or is it really saving time to buy fast food? Science has proven that fast food takes years and health from our lives. It forces us to spend more time in the doctor’s office and less with family. This is definitely a bad trade-off. And what about cleaning? Remember my broken glass? Have you ever spent time dusting a curio cabinet? Is it a wise use of time to keep things that we must clean around and trip over? Does any of that stuff add a minute to your life? How much is too much? Maybe it is time to recycle or dispose of some things that honestly are just a hindrance and a time-sink.
If all of this is overwhelming, know that you are not alone. We all have a long way to go to ruthlessly eliminate hurry. Let’s start with one thing, keep it simple and celebrate small successes.
