Hurry up and Wait

One thing that I have always found to be true no matter where you are is that they expect you to hurry up and wait. Whether it is at work, in the store or on the road that it has become the motto of our times. At work you're supposed to hurry up and finish your job so that you can wait on someone else to finish theirs. At the store you're supposed to hurry up and get in line so you can wait to be checked out. Driving down the road you're supposed to hurry up and get to the next signal light or stop sign so you can wait your turn.

People seem to get so caught up in the hurry up part that they forget how to wait. It is true that every second in life is precious, but for many it just means that they hurry that much faster so they can hope to have a period in which they can wait on someone else. People don't know how to enjoy work even when they enjoy what they're doing. We've forgotten how to enjoy living.

Now, I'm just as bad at this as most people more often than I'd like, but I do try to slow myself down. If you only slow down just a little in your frantic frenzy of things to do I have found that life is more enjoyable. You don't even have to get less done. Just instead of hurrying up to wait you stick to an even pace. It's something that my grandparents tried to instill in me when I was young, but that I never understood then.

In today's world once you start the hurry up and wait cycle it is hard to get out of it and quite often becomes a hurry, hurry, hurry cycle instead. If you do something in exceptionally good time once they expect it every time from then on out. It's a good way to keep a job, but a good way to burn yourself out too. As they say 'slow and steady wins the race' and they're not exhausted at the end either.

So, the next time you find yourself rushing to do something or to get somewhere ask yourself, 'am I hurrying up to wait?' You might be shocked at how often this is true and even expected. If you're always hurrying up to wait maybe you need to think about how to stop the cycle and start enjoying life now instead of trying to enjoy it at some later point that doesn't always come.