As everyone in my family knows, I have a persistent, daily, absurd issue with running for the train.
Each morning, to get to work, I walk a half mile from my house to the train station. At a relaxed pace, that walk takes 12 to 14. Walking briskly, you can do it in 10-12 minutes. Most mornings I do it in 8-9 minutes, and when things get bad, I sprint to the train in 6 minutes.
Mind you, this is all while fully dressed for work. And it’s not because I’ve overslept: I wake up at least 75 minutes before the train, and often I’ve been up for as much as two and a half hours (to exercise).
But here we are in January, and, like any period after a proper vacation, I find that on the first day back I leave the house “early” and stroll casually to the train. While walking, I inevitably remark to myself how enjoyable this is, not just because I’m not huffing and puffing but also because I’m not starting my day with stress and rush.
Yet, most of the time, by Friday of that first week I’m back to rushing.
There’s a quality that all our days acquire when we get pulled back into the thick of things. For me, that quality is “rushed.” You will have, I suspect, a different default vice than I do.
Of course, it’s obvious that my vice isn’t serving me in a productive way.
Though, strictly speaking, that’s not true—since I engage in this behavior day in and day out, it has to be serving some need. This need seems to be the belief in the importance of the few extra things I do before dashing out of the house, or maybe there’s a bigger story I’m telling myself about how cramming activity into every last minute will sum up to a more productive day or week.
And yet, just imagine if they changed the schedule and moved the train five minutes earlier. I’d adjust, instantly.
While I continue to ponder my own foibles, here’s a question for you: what qualities do you let creep in to your days that don’t serve you—things that cause stress or worry or simply the theater of busyness? What trade-offs are you making that you could let go of? What things about how “busy” feels might be open to questioning? What mindset shift would make that sort of change easy and lasting?
What would be your equivalent of “if they changed the train schedule…”?
Here’s to a great start to your near year and new decade.
Happy New Year Sasha. I love this post as it brings to mind something that I have heard many times before in my life and in which I fully believe, so I’ll get right to it . . .
Many if not most groundbreaking inventions happen NOT behind a desk or while working on our electronic devices, but when we are fully relaxed, such as trout fishing or taking a stroll in the woods.
If I may be so bold . . . We might all consider rethinking this “get me to the church on time” approach to life that we all suffer from and create an extremely creative new segment in our lives for our next incredible creative breakthrough . . . Maybe the next iPhone or Tesla.