So by now you know I took a sabbatical year to stay off of airplanes for a while. During those months, I realized how my experience with the corporate world had skewed my sense of time as a human being. In business, we measure time as hours of meetings, minutes to catch a flight, and seconds to send an e-mail. Yet the fundamentals have not changed. Healing takes time. Learning takes time. I no longer measure my personal timeline -- to create a change, to really learn something new, or to rest when I've stretched near my physical limit -- in days and weeks, but in months and years. And knowing this, I am more aware of the life pace with which I can remain at my best and do the most: slower than the speed at which the internet world would have us believe.
What would you say? -- How realistic is it to think people can slow down their pace and still be successful? Maybe I just don't want to work hard enough? I set my priorities differently now, but it still feels like jumping into the dark water when I say no to the long 14 hour working days or weekends... any ideas?
It all comes down to how you define success. If “working hard enough” means enough so people will view you as hard working, or you will be fulfilled by knowing that you gave your all, then long hours may well equate to success. However, if you define success more broadly to include personal enjoyment, then hours invested will not necessarily equate directly to a successful return. For me, I find that when I am considering a visit to the office on a Saturday to “catch up” on work, I need to stop and weigh the return on that investment versus spending the time with my kids. Often I decide that I’d be tripping over dollars to get to a nickel.
Posted by: RJL | December 15, 2006 at 09:36 PM