I hurried to work the other day, for I was running late.
It doesn't happen to me often, for I usually try to get places
early (though I don't often succeed--usually I get there right
around the time I'm supposed to be there). But even if I'm
late, I usually don't hurry--too many bad things can happen when
I'm in a hurry, and I can make mistakes that I normally wouldn't
make. When I'm driving in my car, I don't want to make
mistakes.
Since it was just a one-time thing, it didn't bother me too
much to be in a hurry. And even though I was hurrying, I
didn't hurry that much--I still stopped to get a snack that I knew
I'd need, I didn't speed or drive recklessly, and I didn't
disregard others simply because I was rushing. But the
experience did make me think quite a bit about just how much our
culture values the concept of hurrying things and people.
As the world grows smaller with technological and
transportation advances, we see more and more a tendency to want
to have everything done yesterday. Most of us like most of
the ramifications of this tendency--we can order a book online and
it can be at our home in two days in many cases. We can get
our photos back in an hour, and we can have our oil changed and
our car lubed in just twenty minutes.
But the benefits do have their price. Much of that price
is in the way that people feel more pressure to perform quickly,
often at the expense of quality. Many people aren't wired
for that kind of work--they're much more suited for jobs that
allow them to focus on details, to take their time and do their
jobs right. I also can't help but think that some of the
computer problems I've run into in the last few weeks result from
the manufacturer having strict quotas, needing to crank out a
certain number of units per day.
Hurrying in the workplace can lead to drastic effects on
people, especially forced hurrying. Stress levels climb when quotas are in place, and it
becomes very easy to dread our jobs, knowing before we go in each
day that we're going to be judged on our performance based on the
number of products we produce. And in our hurry to reach the
quotas, we may let something go by that we otherwise wouldn't
have, and our personal satisfaction in the job we're doing
suffers. Once the inferior product reaches the consumer,
there's another round of dissatisfaction that someone else has to
deal with. All because we as a society value speed almost
above all else--but can we have our speed and our satisfaction,
too?
But
that's hurry on the job--what about in our personal lives?
Why do so many people feel that so many things have to be done
right this moment? Why do so many people feel they need to
be everywhere two minutes ago?
One of
the reasons I try to get to work early is that I like to enjoy the
trip to work. If I'm driving or walking, it doesn't
matter--I want to enjoy getting there. I want to experience
my surroundings -- the air, the trees, the people, just the fact of
being alive. When I take my time I get there much more
relaxed, too--much more ready to start my day in a positive
way. When I hurry, I'm not relaxed at all -- I get to work
feeling all the residual stress that hurrying causes, and it takes
me a while before that stress leaves and allows me to do my work
effectively. When
I hurry I also don't get to know a lot about people with whom I
share this planet. I don't have time for a casual chat, to
take a few minutes to listen to someone's experience from
yesterday (and maybe even learn something from it!), or to give
someone a small piece of advice. I have to tell everyone
"Sorry--I'm in a hurry!" and take off, and I get nothing
from those people, and they get nothing from me. When
I'm hurrying, my focus also shifts to time, and how much of it is
going by how quickly. I don't focus on doing the best job I
can or making sure that everything's done correctly--I just focus
on the process of trying to hurry things up. We all see it
and hear it time and again--when you hurry, you make mistakes, and
those mistakes probably would have been avoided if you had taken
your time to do the job right. One
of the most tragic results of hurrying happened in our town last
year when a mother was taking her two kids to a Little League
game. She was late and in a hurry, and when she passed a car
on a double yellow she hit another car head-on. Her two
children died--all because she was in a hurry and she was
focusing on hurrying rather than getting somewhere safely.
It was a completely needless tragedy that happened because she
thought she could arrive ten minutes late instead of twelve or
thirteen minutes late. Most
of our mistakes when we hurry aren't that drastic, of course, but
we can never know the far-reaching implications of things that we
do poorly because we don't give them the time and attention they
deserve. It's in our control, though--we can choose not to
hurry, and though we may be a bit late or later with the finished
product or to get to our next destination, remember that life was
meant for living, not hurrying. Get the most out of where
you are--right here, right now--and try to plan your day and
activities with enough time to get done the things that need to be
done. Get there thirteen minutes late if you need to, rather
than hurrying so that you can arrive ten minutes late. |
