I have to admit, it’s rather ironic that the one word that kept running around in my mind these past few weeks, is “deadline”. Ironic in the sense that the deadline for this blog crept up on me like Luke Skywalker on that ominous Death Star; I did not see it coming! But here I am, penning down a piece about deadlines while almost missing my deadline on this piece about deadlines.
In all honesty, I (and I suspect many of you) thoroughly and passionately hate deadlines. Unfortunately deadlines are an integral part of our daily lives and unless you strap on a jetpack and leave this planet, you’ll find it very hard to escape them. And, to be fair, they are actually a necessary part of helping a business or company achieve their goals, reaching their ideals and delivering on their promises. I guess you could say in a sense a promise is just a lie if there’s no deadline.
But I’ve come to realize that I have gotten into the habit of burdening myself with deadlines that shouldn’t even be deadlines. At first this thought seemed ridiculous to me, but the more I spent time on it, I realized that somewhere in the back of my mind I always found that I was racing towards something; putting time limits on things that no-one forced me to put a time limit on in the first place.
For instance, I find myself forever dividing my evenings into how much time I have before I absolutely have to go to sleep, because that would dictate how many episodes of my favourite series I can squeeze in. I know I’m the only person in the whole wide world that does this, right? Also, I constantly have to stop myself from feeling like I’m missing out on stuff because I haven’t had the time yet to experience them, mainly because you think you have to have certain things in your life in place by the time you reach a certain age.
This kind of thinking definitely has a negative effect on my emotions and if I don’t make my self-inflicted deadline, I feel disappointed and that I have somehow failed at something. Writing it down like this causes a cock-your-head-to-the-side-with-a-“duh”-frown reaction, because how do I not know this? Isn’t this supposed to be common sense?
Not so much. I get sucked in by the busyness and deadlines around me and I am pretty sure I’m not the only one who feels this way.
So I’ve made a decision: walk slower. Just let those two words sink in for a second. I realized that by deliberately walking slower I allow myself more time to see things, hear things, experience things, meet people. It forces me to spend more time in a particular place, putting me in the perfect position to open up to things that I otherwise never would have noticed were there.
Let me tell you, I’ve been doing this for the past month and I’ve noticed a difference. The less I rush towards imaginary deadlines, the more I carefully pick the things I want to spend time on; and that means that my spirit and my heart becomes healthier, which opens them up to even more invigorating experiences and moments. Even my mind has started wandering towards more creative places, and we all know that a creative mind is a healthy mind!
If you’re up for the challenge I dare you to deliberately focus your mind away from unnecessary deadlines. In doing so you will be breaking the deadline and opening up your life to so much more. Walk slower.
