In a Rush?
No matter where we live in the world, from a hamlet in the rural countryside to a giant swarming city, at some point we all tend to fall into the trap of rushing.
That feeling when your heart rate increases, your breathing becomes shallower, your stomach tightens, your jaw might clench, the list of all the things you absolutely have to get done that day (for whatever justifiable and real reason you give them) swirl around in your mind as you begin figuring out how you’ll get everything done, and in response you tell yourself “just go faster.”
You race from one meeting, appointment, event or task to another, hardly gasping for air, let alone taking a comfort break, or having a moment to yourself. This is a familiar pattern for many of us.
Today is your reminder, in this very moment, to give yourself permission to slow down, to not rush as much, to create breathing space.
To illustrate the point, here’s an experience that literally just happened.
On Thanksgiving day my oven decided to switch itself off half way through cooking the turkey. A couple of hours in on roasting a 15 lb turkey it just goes dark! Fortunately we managed to get it back on and sat down for the feast only an hour later than planned, but for a while I had visions of ordering take out and having a half cooked turkey stuck in the oven (since the door also automatically locked itself).
Thanksgiving is complete and the next step is that the oven needs to be looked at, so I book a service call for a technician to come out today between 8am and noon. At noon I’d not heard anything, so I called the company and politely ask “Could you give me an update on the call status as the technician is now later than the planned window of arrival?” (factual not accusative). “Could you ask the technician to call me and give me a revised ETA? Incase I need to re-arrange any of my afternoon appointments as a result.”
Within 15 minutes I receive a call from the technician. I have two options in response:
Option One - I can choose to be angry, frustrated, rude, and unkind. “You are affecting my day, you’re late, this is not acceptable.” I can raise my voice, be curt, and quite frankly obnoxious. I can try to use my irritation and anger to “make” him move faster, to get him to my home quicker, and I can carry all these emotions I’m feeling forward into the rest of my day and allow them to impact other activities and experiences.
Option Two - Or, I can say “Thank you for calling me I appreciate the update. When do you expect to arrive?” "If it’s later I can re-arrange my day so that I’m not rushing around, and ensure I’m home for when you arrive.” The technician explains he has just left the last house and is heading my way. “Ok great” I say, “Take your time, don’t rush, I know you are on your way.”
I chose option 2, without really thinking, and I’m very glad I did based on what the technician told me on arriving about 30 minutes later.
He shared that on his way to my home he narrowly escaped a car crash. You know the sort of moment where your life literally flashes before you and your heart jumps up as you see something unfolding in slow motion. However, he had my words of “It’s ok, don’t rush” in his mind, and as a result had slowed down, just a little bit. He was 100% sure that had I not said those words he would have been involved in the accident.
We rarely witness or have insight into how our words impact others, yet on this occasion I did, and today’s lesson for me is a reminder that words do matter, and I am going to consciously choose to slow down, just a little, especially this season.
I am choosing to put a speed bump in the path of my rushing, to recognize that perhaps at times there are very good reasons for slowing down.
The results of slowing down just a touch could be reasons that protect me or others from something that has significant consequences. Thinking about the technicians’s experience today, which I shared in shaping, gives me goose bumps.
We connected as two humans today, total strangers, totally different backgrounds and lifestyles, yet we shared a moment of true humanity and it was the very real experience that slowed us both down in our lives to give us the gift of reflection.
The next time you’re in a rush, and you find a block or challenge in your way, consider that it might be helping you, it might be redirecting you or slowing you down for very good reasons.