Hurry and Rush are two characters regularly on stage with me in the theatre of my day.
They are like two of my less clever friends.
As my playwright, I can and must hasten their ‘exit stage left’ ASAP because, despite their best intentions, they seldom help.
Some things can’t and, therefore, shouldn’t be rushed.
Not all shortcuts deliver.
My self-development is a case in point.
As a person coming from a place of imprisonment to addiction (and its associated behaviours) and glimpsing a view of freedom, I am keen to get there.
I have had a taste, and I want more.
That is where I want to be.
I am in a hurry.
I want to reach that beautiful future fast!
Red flag!
If I become tomorrow-focused, I miss today, and all of life’s magic happens in the here and now, including healing.
Tomorrow is often an empty promise intended to thwart or dodge the challenges of today.
I want to run without first learning to walk.
I want to be fit without exercise.
I want the dream marriage without the effort investment.
I want knowledge without learning.
To shortcut recovery is to short-change it and effectively undermine it.
For me, drugs and alcohol were all about escaping the present.
Rebuilding my life into a healthy working version happens in the present and involves learning to ‘be’ in the present.
So I say to myself: “Slow down”.
- Don’t speed through that book – mine it for its wealth of content. Take the time to form the new knowledge into shapes my brain can store and refer to.
- Don’t cut a ten-minute meditation down to five.
- Write my journal comprehensively.
- Sit with my feelings for long enough to hear them properly.
Take the time.
I might as well, as time is an illusion. There only is now; everything else is either gone or hasn’t happened yet.
I might as well, as if I don’t do it properly, I will only have to repeat the steps.
I do not facilitate change by ticking an activities box as ‘done’; instead, I nurture transformation by immersing myself in the process and allowing it the space it needs.
There is another red flag I associate with ‘tomorrow-thinking’:
To have my hope centred upon tomorrow is suggestive that today is not sufficient.
If I have not surrendered to and accepted today’s reality, then I am (even partly) resistant to it, which is not conducive to peace or change.
Top Tips:
Surrender, accept, and find peace in this moment.
Reconcile me to this present.
Only then move to adjust a life situation.
Move slowly.
Don’t hurry.
Enjoy or at least celebrate the transition process for what it is.