The title of this post is something I remember hearing a lot when I was younger. It reflected a concern people had back in the 60s and 70s and perhaps have even more now -- the increasing pace of life and how it can rob of us the time to slow down and enjoy things. Change does occur at a faster rate in our accelerating world, aided by technology and driven by global competition. Here are a couple of facts from one of my favorite little videos entitled “Did You Know”.

1 out of every 4 American workers has been on the job for less than a year
It took 38 years for radio broadcasting to reach 50 million users. The iPod achieved that reach in 3 years.
The English language now has five times as many words as in Shakespeare’s time
Four extrabytes (4.0 x 1019) of unique new information will be generated this year. That is more than the last 5,000 years combined.

This video has been around for a decade and gets updated annually. Click here for the 2017 version and then take a peek into the future with the 2028 version.

We are rushing through life – and some people long for the opportunity to slow it down a bit.
One mother was successful after she realized what it was doing to her relationship with her daughter. Take a moment and read this.

But this topic is not just for parents of young children. If you are struggling to slow down the pace of your life and get more out of each day, here is a very compelling article that definitely justifies the investment of a few minutes of your time. Click here.

My own little personal secret to slow down and go for quality rather than quantity in my life is the hobby of photography, not snapshots but striving to make photos that capture the essence of the subject, its environment and how I feel about it -- regardless of whether it is a landscape, cityscape or person. That requires looking at the world more intensely and then stopping to compose the photo to capture the most meaningful image.

Culturally, being driven by the clock and calendar is classic of people known as monochronic, those cultures that are driven to be on-time and follow their agendas rigidly. They give us a sense that time is slipping through our fingers and we need to do more, faster. The most developed nations tend to fall into that trap of believing that life is a race.

The opposite of monochronism is polychronism (click for a detailed explanation), an attitude about time that it is not finite and people should always be ready to adjust to the priorities of the moment.

If you tend toward monochronism and feel pressured to keep up with the quickening pace, you might find benefit in yoga, Zen, long walks, a hobby or just spend time with your children or grandchildren playing like they do – I think the secret is to fight the panicky feeling that you are behind schedule. And enjoy every minute of every day.

And just as this article was going to press, I saw another very interesting piece from the Harvard Gazette about slowing down the treadmill. (Click to read it).

- Herb