Virtual Cathy Blog
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Stop the World. . .
FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING MARCH 26, 2007
INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:
"He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good."
~ Rabindranath Tagore
ARE YOU A HURRY WART?
There's a new term in the psychological lexicon - "hurry sickness." The phrase was created by Dr. Meyer Friendman, the same guy who gave us the "Type A Personality" (the driven, overachiever type).
What are some symptoms of hurry sickness? Are you irritated when it takes someone more than three rings to answer the phone? Do you interrupt people or finish their sentences? Have trouble sleeping or eating because you're distracted by "what needs to be done"?
In our quest to be more productive, we often relinquish time spent with friends and family, or just ourselves. We begin to fantasize about what it would feel like to just "unplug" ourselves from the world and all its responsibilities. It's high time to turn those dreams into reality.
The fact is that working at double speed or for twice as long does not increase your productivity - it actually reduces it. Working too fast for too long turns us into exhausted and inefficient drones who make mistakes because we're not thinking clearly.
Our bodies and minds remain in a constant state of overstimulation, which makes it just about impossible to relax. Each day turns into a survival course, instead of an opportunity to embrace life and help others.
Our fear of disappointment and failure often leads to hurry sickness. Eric Hoffer wrote that "the feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is, on the contrary, born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life."
So let someone else help, and let go of the fear that if you don't handle it, it won't get done right. Tell someone "no," and let go of the fear that you'll disappoint them by setting a boundary. And for heaven's sake, stop taking the cell phone or PDA into the bathroom (you know who you are)! Jump off the merry-go-round and take a long, slow look at what you've been missing.
Labels: cell phone, Outsourcing, PDA, Type A Personality
posted by The Office Grapevine at 10:37 PM
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