Wednesday, May 09, 2007

An UNHURRIED Life








"Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil." - Carl Jung

"Superficiality is the curse of our age." - Richard Foster

Why write about this? Because I feel that always being in a hurry has caused me to miss out on many of life's most simple joys. Owning your own business, keeping a healthy vibrant marriage, training, reading, studying ,self growth, and family all require a certain amount of time in order to be fruitful. The challenge is in learning to keep all of these in balance without forgetting what is truly important in life. My tendency is to get my schedule so busy with clients that I barely have time to train, study and spend quality time with Yoana. The hectic pace leaves me absolutely smoked and in a chronic state of mental and physical exhaustion. Perhaps some of you have experienced what I am talking about?

Perhaps it's my personality but I have tend to be fear driven with alot of anxiety. I feel that keeping ultra busy with my work will keep me and my family financially secure, but at what expense. Starting in January I really started noticing how much my physical, mental and spiritual health has been impacted from my hectic "HURRIED" pace of life. I honestly cannot say that I have cured this problem, but I am 100% aware of the problem and the negative impact it has had on my life. My training has suffered. An amazing book I read by John Ortberg called "The Life You've Always Wanted; Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People" really awakend me to the ideas I am writing about in this post. I know I am not alone; hurry sickness is the disease of the modern 21st century. Perhaps you have seen people do these things or you yourself do them"

* talk on the cell phone while driving
* Check your e-mail on your cell phone while driving or while eating
* Check your e-mail or answer phone calls while eating with your family
* Multi -tasking (driving, eating, talking on the phone, listening to the radio)
* Accumulating Clutter
* Constantly speeding up daily activities
* Superficiality


One of the things I have started doing is intentionally slowing down my day. Rather than speeding around everywhere as fast as possible, I am purposely driving slower or picking the longest line that the grocery store rather than the shortest one. Beleive me, it is not easy, but it is giving me more peace and less stress. I am also trying to find time for more solitude. Going for walks by the ocean or going and practing putting has been great for me in many ways. It slows me down, gets me into nature as well. Another thing that Yoana and I have started doing is hiking on the weekends. Just getting outside and hiking up mountains has brought so much joy into my life I can't believe it. I feel like a kid again when I do things like hiking.

Anyway, my point is that Life does require alot of work, but we can do our work is a slower, more mindful state of mind. Trying to do everything rushed rarel works, and the quality of our work is mediocre at best. Here is a quote from the book,

"The deeper truth is that we live is a lethal environment. American society is filled with ideas and values and pressures and temptations about success and security and comfort and happiness that we will not even notice unless we withdraw on occasion. Thomas Merton wrote that the early church fathers places such an premium on solitude because they considered society to be a shipwreck from which any sane perosn must swim for his life. These people believed that to let oneself drift along, passively accepting the tenets and values of what they knew as society,was purely and simply a diaster."

Powerful stuff. Are you passively accepting things in your life that are destructive you your soul? Only you can answer that question.

My hamsting is still healing as I feel some pain upon stretching. I think I'll start doing some light tempo running next week. I have a track meet in late June and plan on running in the 50 meter dash. Hopefully my hammie will be ready to go by then.

Training this week: I am taking this week off. True to my nature and habits, I overdid it last week and am smoked. I ran myself into the ground and need a week to recover. You would think I would start to learn from my mistakes, geez!

15 comments:

David Garrett said...

I know what you mean...taking time to slow down needs to be purposeful at first 'till it becomes habit, whilst not forgetting/neglecting what needs to be done....Balance takes practice, practice, practice...

A good friend of mine once told me..."An injury is Gods way of telling us to slow down"

Enjoy your days off of training...c-ya next week.

Lauren Brooks said...

I coudn't have explained it better myself. Beautiful post! I am the same way. Having a kid has forced me to slow my life down. I even check my email while nursing at the same time. I need to remember this post and just enjoy the moment more!
I am so glad you and Yoana found something you two really can share together. Hiking in nature is amazing! One day Ben and I will have to join you guys.

Enjoy your relaxing week off of training. I bet you will come back even stronger from letting your body and mind rest!

Anonymous said...

I've been more conscious about the hurried lifestyle, as well. It’s especially apparent living here in Vegas. It’s so easy to get caught up in the pull of the tide…everyone else is in such a rush! It’s nuts! But so unnatural! Its funny that it takes EFFORT to slow down.

Franz Snideman said...

David,

I agree. God sometimes allows trials to get out attention.

Lauren, you and Ben must come hike Cowles mountain with us. So much fun. You guys will love it.

Sara,
It's amazing that we have to work at slowing down, I totally agree. Sounds simple, but to actually go against the pace of our society is rather difficult.

Tracy Reifkind said...

I'm lucky to be abble to afford a "slower" paced lifestyle, even though I am responsible to get alot of things done on a daily basis. Just remember though, the experience of chosing to be ultra busy and hurried has brought you to this point....the point of appreciation for taking time to "smell the roses".

It's all part of personal growth and awareness.

Franz Snideman said...

Tracy,

great point. I am not anti-hard work or being busy at all. I am against the hurried mental state that leads to so many health problems in people as well as lack of joy. I believe you can still very busy in a focused mindful way.

And you are right, the busyness in my life has allowed me the opportunity to tone down my work schedule a bit if I choose to and it has allowed to be able to smell the roses. Thanks for that observation, I hadn't thought of it that way.

Joe Sarti said...

Everyday conciousness and awareness that you are creating have made a huge impact on my life. I now live at the base of the mountains and walking distance town. So, everyday Mia and I hike and/or walk into town. the less time in the car and more time on my feet with Mia and Jaz the dog the better. We have eliminated TV from our life and we talk nightly about life, ideas, our relationship, our day, our dreams and goals, etc. We also read aloud to each other, right now we are reading The Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Ruiz. This truly brings about my quality time in life. This has truly brought so much to my alreaady state of inner peace and calm.

Beautiful thoughts and feelings my friend! Thank you for sharing.

Ken Black said...

Nice post Franz. Sometimes those longer lines go quicker! or at least I always pick the slowest one;)

Have a great weekend.

Mark Reifkind said...

for better or worse my knee and other injuries only allowed me to be on my feet for so long everyday.I developed my pt schedule from 6 am - 12 noon ONLY every day.this also made it possible for either tracy or I to be with my son,she in the am then me in the afternoons.we worked opposite shifts for years so we could do this.

Now that I have more ability I am tempted to work more but I know having recovery time is not an option but a necessity. I still an trying to focus on the long haul

good luck franz I know where you are coming from.

Authentic Strength Training said...

Hey Franz. Just found you guys on Youtube. I recently set up my own channel. I was so bummed I couldn't stop by the Studio on my way to Baja. Sarah and I were stuck on the 5 at a very inoppoptune time. And when we left Mexico, we passed by La Jolla at 515 Am. Didn;t know if anyone would be there. I have more Cali trips planned this summer. I'd like to see the place next time if I can. Peace be unto you.

W2

Franz Snideman said...

Hey Will,

sorry we missed you. Hope you had a great trip down to Baja and that the weather was kind to you guys. Yeah for sure we'll hook up with you next time. Be well!

Franz Snideman said...

Thanks Ken.

Franz Snideman said...

Mark,
You of all people can appreciate where I'm coming from. Setting appropriate boundaires with these things seems to be essential.

Rannoch Donald said...

Franz,

I've followed your blog for a while now, along with the blogs of other RKCs. I attended the certification last weekend in Demark. Anyway, as someone who strives to simplify his life I thought you might be interested in the attached...

http://www.quirkology.com/

Check out the link on the Pace of Life

Franz Snideman said...

Rannoch,

thank you for your post. I will check out the site!

Congratulations on taking the RKC!!!!