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Escape The Pace: 15 Golden Minutes

Escape The Pace: 15 Golden Minutes

by Lisa Rickwood, "The Escape Artist."

"On the keyboard of life, always have one finger on the escape

key." - Anonymous

It's a miserable, cold Tuesday morning and you've slept through

your alarm again. You race through the first part of your

morning and then hit the highway like an Indy 5oo racecar

driver. Your heart pounds, road rage builds and you fantasize

about ditching work, returning to bed, and pulling that cozy

duvet high over your head. Instead, you go to work, with the

full knowledge that overwhelming tasks will undoubtedly inundate

you. It's precisely at that moment you dream of cloning yourself

like Michael Keaton did in the movie, Multiplicity.

The film focuses on a time-stressed man who can't keep up with

work and home demands, so he enlists the help of scientists and

produces a clone of himself so he can be in two places at once.

Everything appears find until he realized the copy has

duplicated itself to achieve more. To make matters worse, the

third version is less effective, like a photocopy of a

photocopy.

Who hasn't dreamt of having an identical twin slide into their

life for a day or two? As the world spins faster and faster, the

hours in the day seem to shrink.

In the early 1980s, a U.S. physician called the phenomena 'time

sickness' and used it to describe the belief that time is

getting away and we don't have enough of it, and one must move

faster to catch up.

This preoccupation with time didn't happen overnight; it

commenced with the advent of the calendar. Ancient nomadic

civilizations used a calendar to determine when to plant and

harvest crops, and when to relocate their villages. The ability

to measure time was important for the survival of these cultures.

Once we discovered how to measure years, months, weeks and days,

we were free to slice time into smaller increments such as:

hours, minutes and seconds. This measurement of time became

important after the Industrial Revolution. The factories that

popped up across North America used to monitor an employee's

productivity, loyalty and work ethic. It wasn't uncommon for

workers to spend more than 12 hours a day in factories.

Now fast-forward to the 21st century to where companies sink of

float based on the clock.

Couriers would never survive if time wasn't a key to the success

of their business. Imagine what would happen if they told a

major clients his important documents for a proposed business

deal would arrive sometime in the near future?

Consider companies and corporations that push their products

into the market before their competitors? Would they survive if

they had a laissez-fire attitude?

People believe our 'need for speed' is a 21st invention. It's

not. Our lives move quickly due to centuries of time focus and a

large dash of new technology. Mix these ingredients together and

you've got a recipe for disaster.

Since technology is fast, we pressure ourselves. Communication

is immediate, so we must be too. We fear being labeled as

'techno-snubbers' (people who ignore technology and aren't 'with

it.') It's not acceptable to return a phone call a few hours

later; we must phone back within the hour. We can't take our

vacation and leave our computers at home; we must keep wired so

we don't lose that unpredictable client. To catch-up, we stay up

late, work overtime, eliminate exercise and skip meals. Our

health suffers and our mental state isn't much better.

Resentment, road rage and lack of patience for others become our

mainstay.

If you think you don't suffer from stress or time constraints,

consider how many times you've misplaced your keys, blatantly

driven five blocks without remembering if you traveled through a

red light, or placed your coffee cup on your car's roof before

driving to work. We're all guilty, and it stems from sleep

deprivation, stress and multi-tasking throughout our days. We're

not living in the moment because we're thinking about the next

great thing we must accomplish.

I know about stress and the need for speed because I'm a

recovering "speed-aholic." Years ago, I worked as an advertising

consultant for a daily newspaper and was proud of the speed at

which I conducted my life. I walked, talked and drove fast.

Ironically, I only received one speeding ticket and that was

while keeping pace with the other traffic.

Another time, I was late for work and placed my purse on top of

my vehicle so I could load supplies into my car. In my hasted to

race to the office, I drove away with the purse on the roof. I

received a call from a woman who found my purse on a busy street.

Things went from bad to worse when my husband and I bought a

high-end menswear store during a recession. We hired a wonderful

employee to help us through Christmas and beyond and on the

fourth day of this man's work, he passed away of a heart attack

in our store. I went on to work six days a week, manage two

small children and do everything to keep the store going. I got

sick.

For one year, I was severely ill and I knew, like many people, I

couldn't make any drastic changes to my life. I didn't have the

luxury of quitting my career and scaling back, so I decided to

change my attitude about stress. I read dozens of books for the

next few years and talked to many people about stress and

solutions. Months later, my depression lifted and I felt happy,

fairly healthy and energized. Best of all, I discovered a

wonderful antidote for speed - slowing down and escaping the

pace.

"If slowing down and relaxing seems ludicrous, remember that

everything in nature needs downtime to rest and rejuvenate. Why

should humans be any different?"

I have a beautiful peach tree that grows near the back window of

my house. In the first week of August, the tree's branches are

laden with plump and juicy, yellow and pink fruit that's warm to

the touch. This tree doesn't always yield abundant fruit; every

second year, it reduces its amount. Like breaks in the rhythm of

music, or the poignant lull in conversation, and like the peach

tree, we need to pause throughout our day to rest and recharge

ourselves.

Our greatest innovations and discoveries are made when people

slow down and temporarily pause in life. Now imagine how

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different our lives would be if Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison

or Albert Einstein had found themselves too busy to record their

magnificent findings.

Decades ago, peace activist, Mahatma Ghandhi said, "There is

more to life than increasing its speed."

"When you take 15 minutes to rest, walk or just 'be,' you deal

more effectively with stress and challenges. If you approach

each moment in a calm state, issues resolve easily and your life

feels serene. "

Escaping the pace is about putting your needs first and being

sure to take a mini holiday every day. When you practice this

philosophy for 30 days, you'll automatically make time for mini

retreats.

The definition of a quick retreat is anything that takes 15-30

minutes. Of course you can have longer retreats that take an

hour or a day, but this may be difficult if you lead a busy

life. Even in the busiest life, there are small hidden pockets

of 'free time.' This time can be used for:

reading

walking, outdoor exercise

working out at the gym or doing yoga

sleeping in late

dancing

playing an instrument

eating something delicious

seeing a movie

visiting friends

going on a weekend excursion

taking a sick day to do a hobby

Your time should allow you to slow down, relax and live in the

moment.

For example, how much time do you waste waiting in the doctor's

office? There, you might try reading a novel, listening to music

on your MP3 player, watching people or deep breathing.

Speed isn't the enemy; it is knowing when one must slow down to

put balance in one's life. Some things shouldn't be slow, like

the Internet and slow drivers in the fast lane. Balance is about

knowing when to travel 110 km/h and when to drive off the

freeway for a mini holiday. And, everyone's idea of balance will

vary greatly.

If you practice the escape philosophy every day, you'll never

need an identical twin.

© 2005 Lisa Rickwood. All rights reserved.

NOTE: You may "reprint" this article online as long as it

remains complete and unaltered (including the 'about the author'

info at the end", and you send a copy of your reprint to:

info@escapethepace.com

About the author:

Lisa Rickwood, "The Escape Artist," is an accomplished visual

artist, speaker and author of Escape The Pace: 100 Fun And Easy

Ways To Slow Down And Enjoy Your Life. She teaches busy business

people techniques to relax and increase profits. To learn more

about her book and sign up for FREE tips and articles, visit her

site at: http://www.escapethepace.com