What’s the Rush?
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Haste is universal because everyone is in flight from himself.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Untimely Meditations
We are always in a hurry.
Especially when we are driving.
Every trip is a challenge to get to the destination as quickly as possible.
I find myself doing this even when I’m ahead of schedule — even when I don’t know what I’m going to do once I arrive.
The road is not the only place we are in a rush.
According to TheBarbecueLab.com, the average American household uses 10% of its income to buy fast food.
Even at home, we are in a hurry to eat.
Most of our food is ready to eat or ready to heat.
It seems that the home-cooked meal is quickly becoming a relic of a time long gone.
Even shopping has been accelerated.
I find myself searching for more items to add to my online cart so I can qualify for free next-day shipping.
Even when we try to get away on vacation we are in a hurry.
We try to stuff too many attractions into just a few days.
I’ve gone on hikes through gorgeous parks in a hurry to get done as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, there was no one at the finish to give me a trophy for my record time.
Why do we get caught up in the rush?
When we’re in a hurry we have a single focus.
There’s little time to reflect on our thoughts and on our feelings.
It is a means of escape.
Maybe what we need to escape from is the rush.
We need to admit that we choose to be in a hurry.
It is not “just the way life is.”
We have chosen to live this way.
Yet it is hard to imagine living any other way.
We may think being in a hurry is working for us. But it clearly is not.
Rushing around is a hard habit to break.
But it can be done, and it starts by noticing how rushed we are.
If we are constantly in a hurry, either we are trying to do too much, or we are wasting time doing unimportant things.
Usually, it’s both.
We have enough time to do what we ought to do.
Some of the most important things we should do are easily squeezed out of our schedules because they don’t feel urgent.
We can learn from the mantra of the Navy SEALs.
“Slow is steady, steady is smooth, smooth is fast.”
Slow down and enjoy the journey.
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