“You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. There is nothing else. Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”
– Dallas Willard (1935 – 2013), philosopher and pastor, as quoted by John Ortberg in his book “Soul Keeping; Caring For The Most Important Part of You”
A quick step back. John Ortberg has been at the center of two of the most significant growth periods of my adult life. Approachable and applicable, his books address us where we live, and help us live more better. (As many of you know, “more better” is a technical term in the Daily Diff…)
First, his book “If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of The Boat,” made me realize that initiative and active engagement tend to expedite (and increase!) the miracles that we’ll encounter in our lives. “Soul Keeping” (thanks to my buddy DG for the gift!) has driven home that no matter how well we coach, teach, lead and mentor, marry or parent — unless we’re taking care of us, we’ll diminish the difference we make for others.
And, thus, hurry comes in to the equation.
I’ve often asked in this blog and in conversations, “at what point do we adults begin to suck all the sweetness and innocence out of a little kid?” I think it might be when we start to bark at them about hurrying. Yes, the tee-ball game starts in :22 minutes, but it’s not the four-year-old’s fault that we tried to fold one more load of laundry or return one more e-mail.
Managing our days well isn’t about hurrying — slamming as much as possible in to the 24-hours, it’s about prioritizing and only putting the important stuff in there. Another great book on this is “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown — he’s a good one to follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to get about five reminders a day that are simple and peace-giving — where Greg gives us a magnificent means of eliminating hurry. By simply engaging “less often, more better.”
“Less often, more better,” has been a staple of my sales leadership and executive management philosophy and approach for nearly 25 years, and when we’ve had that part right, our teams have been rocket ships on a straight course to the moon. If we’re hitting meteor showers or bouncing around space, we’re probably not keeping our souls, getting out of the boat or focusing on the essentials. We’re probably just hurrying from one unimportant task to the next.
Ruthlessly eliminating hurry. Dallas Willard says, “there is nothing else.” I think he’s pretty much nailed it!
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