Slow Down

Slow Down. It seems you humans have an uncanny ability to be strictly results-oriented and to dismiss process as an incredible burden. You’ve got to have things NOW, you’ve got to get there NOW, and anything that delays your plans of blissful immediacy turn you into a raving lunatic.

So you whip in and out of traffic, trying to get three car-lengths ahead like a strung-out junkie looking for his next fix, putting every other car in your path in danger, all so you can get there thirty seconds sooner.

Or your flight is delayed due to weather, and you feel the need to rectify the situation by ripping into the gate agent with the same voracity you might use if someone had just set your house on fire. Is this you? If so, why?

Please list in your mind all the reasons for driving in a way so as to endanger others, and for berating another human for a problem over which they have no control. Let me help. Now say it with me. “Because I have no control over my mind or my actions when my expectations are not met, and consequently some innocent person should be endangered or berated in return.”

Please imagine the people in the other cars as your family members and the gate agent as your spouse, your child, your parent, your best friend. Would you still do it?

Slow down eh? As much as you may hate drive-time and wait-time, you might as well not waste it being mad. Free yourself from the insidious pressure of having to get there faster and enjoy the ride.

While waiting for anything, listen to some music or people-watch or remember some good times or laugh at your favorite joke or read the paper. Whatever you do, don’t write the time off as wasted when you could use it to make yourself happier.

If whatever you are doing or wherever you are going is not worth the time that must be spent traveling or waiting, don’t go. If it is worth the time and effort, know that the destination would not be possible or even as enjoyable without the journey, and that heavy traffic is a chance you take every time you turn the key. Take it easy, don't be in such a rush, and you'll live longer.

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