Why Do We Hurry?

Picture from Microsoft Clipart

"Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset." - Saint Francis de Sales

Do you remember the story of the tortoise and the hare?  They had a race, and even though the hare was faster, he lost the race because he overslept his nap, so great was his confidence. 

We hurry every day to make it to work, to appointments, to pickup or drop off kids, to grocery shop, to clean the house and groom the yard, to exercise and to simply get from A to B.  We have all come to believe that if we hurry, we will achieve more, and have more time for ourselves.  The result is that we have great anxiety (stress) about not hurrying, and we get frustrated if anyone gets in our way when we are hurrying - be they spouse, child, other driver, or simply anyone in our path.   We give ourselves indigestion, high blood pressure, trigger tempers, heart attacks, and speeding tickets!  And, the speed at which we hurry does not make us happy. 

What if we all did slow down in everything?  Would we feel better?  Are we confident that hurrying will solve the problem?  Napoleon said, "Disorder is always in a hurry".  He said this in the early 1800's, over two hundred years ago.  It looks like Napoleon got it right!  As more technology appears in the world, and as things speed up, disorder seems more prevalent. 

We are bombarded with the ads on TV and radio that advertise sales, concerts, vehicles, new technology, and the last comment is usually to "hurry and get.....".  Hurry then becomes the threat of scarcity.  Coincidently, disorder also leads to scarcity because "things" are not in the right place and therefore not available.   What is interesting is that with all the "hurrying" that we do, especially over the last fifteen years, the waste is piling up in a hurry, too. 

Projects are completed in a hurry, and resources are misused or misallocated and waste occurs.  Buildings are hurriedly built and fall down before they are even used, and waste occurs.  The list could continue.  Hurrying doesn't seem to work as well as the slow and orderly path.  Even racers don't hurry; they run a disciplined, well thought out race according to their competition in the meet.

So, will you slow down today?

Judith