Escape The Pace: 15 Golden Minutes
Escape The Pace: 15 Golden Minutes
by Lisa Rickwood, "The Escape Artist."
"On the keyboard of life, always have one finger on the escape
key." - Anonymous
It's a miserable, cold Tuesday morning and you've slept through
your alarm again. You race through the first part of your
morning and then hit the highway like an Indy 5oo racecar
driver. Your heart pounds, road rage builds and you fantasize
about ditching work, returning to bed, and pulling that cozy
duvet high over your head. Instead, you go to work, with the
full knowledge that overwhelming tasks will undoubtedly inundate
you. It's precisely at that moment you dream of cloning yourself
like Michael Keaton did in the movie, Multiplicity.
The film focuses on a time-stressed man who can't keep up with
work and home demands, so he enlists the help of scientists and
produces a clone of himself so he can be in two places at once.
Everything appears find until he realized the copy has
duplicated itself to achieve more. To make matters worse, the
third version is less effective, like a photocopy of a
photocopy.
Who hasn't dreamt of having an identical twin slide into their
life for a day or two? As the world spins faster and faster, the
hours in the day seem to shrink.
In the early 1980s, a U.S. physician called the phenomena 'time
sickness' and used it to describe the belief that time is
getting away and we don't have enough of it, and one must move
faster to catch up.
This preoccupation with time didn't happen overnight; it
commenced with the advent of the calendar. Ancient nomadic
civilizations used a calendar to determine when to plant and
harvest crops, and when to relocate their villages. The ability
to measure time was important for the survival of these cultures.
Once we discovered how to measure years, months, weeks and days,
we were free to slice time into smaller increments such as:
hours, minutes and seconds. This measurement of time became
important after the Industrial Revolution. The factories that
popped up across North America used to monitor an employee's
productivity, loyalty and work ethic. It wasn't uncommon for
workers to spend more than 12 hours a day in factories.
Now fast-forward to the 21st century to where companies sink of
float based on the clock.
Couriers would never survive if time wasn't a key to the success
of their business. Imagine what would happen if they told a
major clients his important documents for a proposed business
deal would arrive sometime in the near future?
Consider companies and corporations that push their products
into the market before their competitors? Would they survive if
they had a laissez-fire attitude?
People believe our 'need for speed' is a 21st invention. It's
not. Our lives move quickly due to centuries of time focus and a
large dash of new technology. Mix these ingredients together and
you've got a recipe for disaster.
Since technology is fast, we pressure ourselves. Communication
is immediate, so we must be too. We fear being labeled as
'techno-snubbers' (people who ignore technology and aren't 'with
it.') It's not acceptable to return a phone call a few hours
later; we must phone back within the hour. We can't take our
vacation and leave our computers at home; we must keep wired so
we don't lose that unpredictable client. To catch-up, we stay up
late, work overtime, eliminate exercise and skip meals. Our
health suffers and our mental state isn't much better.
Resentment, road rage and lack of patience for others become our
mainstay.
If you think you don't suffer from stress or time constraints,
consider how many times you've misplaced your keys, blatantly
driven five blocks without remembering if you traveled through a
red light, or placed your coffee cup on your car's roof before
driving to work. We're all guilty, and it stems from sleep
deprivation, stress and multi-tasking throughout our days. We're
not living in the moment because we're thinking about the next
great thing we must accomplish.
I know about stress and the need for speed because I'm a
recovering "speed-aholic." Years ago, I worked as an advertising
consultant for a daily newspaper and was proud of the speed at
which I conducted my life. I walked, talked and drove fast.
Ironically, I only received one speeding ticket and that was
while keeping pace with the other traffic.
Another time, I was late for work and placed my purse on top of
my vehicle so I could load supplies into my car. In my hasted to
race to the office, I drove away with the purse on the roof. I
received a call from a woman who found my purse on a busy street.
Things went from bad to worse when my husband and I bought a
high-end menswear store during a recession. We hired a wonderful
employee to help us through Christmas and beyond and on the
fourth day of this man's work, he passed away of a heart attack
in our store. I went on to work six days a week, manage two
small children and do everything to keep the store going. I got
sick.
For one year, I was severely ill and I knew, like many people, I
couldn't make any drastic changes to my life. I didn't have the
luxury of quitting my career and scaling back, so I decided to
change my attitude about stress. I read dozens of books for the
next few years and talked to many people about stress and
solutions. Months later, my depression lifted and I felt happy,
fairly healthy and energized. Best of all, I discovered a
wonderful antidote for speed - slowing down and escaping the
pace.
"If slowing down and relaxing seems ludicrous, remember that
everything in nature needs downtime to rest and rejuvenate. Why
should humans be any different?"
I have a beautiful peach tree that grows near the back window of
my house. In the first week of August, the tree's branches are
laden with plump and juicy, yellow and pink fruit that's warm to
the touch. This tree doesn't always yield abundant fruit; every
second year, it reduces its amount. Like breaks in the rhythm of
music, or the poignant lull in conversation, and like the peach
tree, we need to pause throughout our day to rest and recharge
ourselves.
Our greatest innovations and discoveries are made when people
slow down and temporarily pause in life. Now imagine how
different our lives would be if Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison
or Albert Einstein had found themselves too busy to record their
magnificent findings.
Decades ago, peace activist, Mahatma Ghandhi said, "There is
more to life than increasing its speed."
"When you take 15 minutes to rest, walk or just 'be,' you deal
more effectively with stress and challenges. If you approach
each moment in a calm state, issues resolve easily and your life
feels serene. "
Escaping the pace is about putting your needs first and being
sure to take a mini holiday every day. When you practice this
philosophy for 30 days, you'll automatically make time for mini
retreats.
The definition of a quick retreat is anything that takes 15-30
minutes. Of course you can have longer retreats that take an
hour or a day, but this may be difficult if you lead a busy
life. Even in the busiest life, there are small hidden pockets
of 'free time.' This time can be used for:
reading
walking, outdoor exercise
working out at the gym or doing yoga
sleeping in late
dancing
playing an instrument
eating something delicious
seeing a movie
visiting friends
going on a weekend excursion
taking a sick day to do a hobby
Your time should allow you to slow down, relax and live in the
moment.
For example, how much time do you waste waiting in the doctor's
office? There, you might try reading a novel, listening to music
on your MP3 player, watching people or deep breathing.
Speed isn't the enemy; it is knowing when one must slow down to
put balance in one's life. Some things shouldn't be slow, like
the Internet and slow drivers in the fast lane. Balance is about
knowing when to travel 110 km/h and when to drive off the
freeway for a mini holiday. And, everyone's idea of balance will
vary greatly.
If you practice the escape philosophy every day, you'll never
need an identical twin.