Mike Horsten
It used to be that we tried to keep up with the Smith Family, those ubiquitous neighbors who seemed to really have it all. If Mr. Smith got a new lawnmower, guess what? You did, too. But over the years, the rules of the game have changed. We now are not only trying to keep up with the Smith Family – we are also just trying to keep up with ourselves.
Studies have proven that the overall pace of life has increased by 10% worldwide since the mid-90s. In some places, it has even increased by 20%. And in the case of Singapore, it has increased an amazing 30% in the last ten years. This points to the many technological advances as a possible explanation for our collective sense of urgency. The immediacy of communication has informed our perception of time. Today, ‘now’ has become the new yesterday. As a result, we are left time-crunched, stressed, and overwhelmed.
But what are we racing toward? Chances are if you were to stop and really think about it, you wouldn’t come up with a satisfactory answer. You might find an explanation (I don’t have enough time; I have too much to do; I am so stressed!), but those reasons are not at the root of our frenzy.
They are merely the symptoms of a much larger issue at hand. The true cause of the race is our sense that time is a ‘waste’. We really believe that we don’t have enough time left; consequently, we do not. In the paraphrased words of Shakespeare, nothing’s true but thinking makes it so. If we were to embrace time-abundant thinking, my guess is we’d all be a lot happier, too.
Lets’ Create…together.