I had finished a series of lectures in Spain and was
eager to head back to the United States to catch up on work. I should've taken
a few days off for sightseeing, but this overpowering need to remain busy prevented
me from indulging in some downtime and the chance to enjoy Spain.
I arrived at the Asturias regional airport, rushing from
curbside to cafeteria to grab a cup of coffee and keep heading for the
terminal.
"One large coffee to go, please," I ordered.
Greatly astonished, the waiter replied, "To go
where, sir?"
"To the terminal!"
He pointed to it and said, "What's the hurry? The
airplane isn't even here yet."
"I have work to do." Why was I explaining my
life to this guy?
He smiled. "You should slow down and enjoy your
coffee. Work will always be there."
I was annoyed by this intervention, unable to appreciate
the wisdom of what he said. I made clear again my desire to take the coffee
with me. He said I couldn't do it. "We do not have disposable cups, so you
have to drink it here." He brought me the cup of coffee and, much to my
surprise, a pastry. "On the house!" he said. He knew he would have
the last word. "Drink your coffee, eat your pastry, enjoy your life."
I never forgot that encounter. I thought about how much I
had travelled in my career and how little I had actually seen. Always moving
onto the next thing, preoccupied with the next commitment. When you spend your
life in boardrooms or classrooms, you might as well be in any country, I
realized.
In the "gotta-go, gotta-do" environment in
which we live, it's easy to overcommit and confuse speed with progress and
activity with advancement. Technological clutter makes it even more difficult
to disengage. We multitask because our digital world allows us to, but are we
really getting more done? Scientists have learned that as we multitask, we do
each task more poorly than if we had tackled each one by itself, and those who
multitask the most do the worst. One step forward, two back. We confuse means
with ends, progressively eroding our sense of purpose and mission.
What would happen if we broke this pattern of busyness?
Take a minute to reflect on the pace and busyness of your own life. To do this,
find a quiet place. Imagine you are on a speeding train. You see the blur of
tree branches outside as they whiz past, and a line of graffiti that blends
into one. As the train continues, you pass neighbourhoods and towns, each a dot
that appears and disappears as you barrel ahead.
Metaphor
Picture this train as a metaphor for your life. Look out
the window and think about what you see. Do you appreciate the views? Do you
feel as though you are gaining ground on the week's bombardment of meetings,
deadlines, emails, voice mail, texting, phone calls and engagements? Is it a feeling
of satisfaction, of fulfilment? Of validation for all your hard work? Or do you
feel overwhelmed, knowing next week will be the same? Now, look around you. Do
you recognize those riding with you? Are you in good company?
Unfortunately, many people are riding fast on the wrong
train. They are making "good time" in terms of earnings, promotions,
and status, but are no longer thinking about the basic questions that would
reassure them of the rightness of their direction. As the speed of the train --
their life -- gains momentum, they surrender to the flow.
We are seldom in the moment. William Wordsworth wrote
about this in a poem that begins, "The world is too much with us; late and
soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in Nature
that is ours." It is very hard to slow down and reflect on what is going
on because demands for our time and our energy don't diminish.
Slowing down requires recognition that it's important to
do so. Instead of sitting as a passenger on a speeding train, we need to become
the engineer. As we slow the train down, the images out the window are no
longer a blur, but landscapes of our own creation, that speak to our goals,
aspirations, and purpose.
If the "train" we are on is not going to get us
there, then we may even decide that the best thing to do is hop off at the next
station. It is there that we can begin the act of deep reflection, of pursuing
what matters most to us.
I am not suggesting abandonment of our responsibilities.
I am suggesting creating a mental space every day, the equivalent of a train
stop that will bring renewed perspective to what we do and why we are doing it.
Then we can re-board, knowing this will be the ride we will enjoy the most.
This is, after all, the ride of our life.
Suarez is professor
of practice in systems thinking and design and a fellow of the Center for
Leadership Innovation and Change at the University of Maryland's Robert H.
Smith School of Business. He is also an executive coach and author of
"Leader Of One: Shaping Your Future through Imagination and Design."
WASHINGTON POST