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STOP DOING MORE AND BETTER
By Isabel Rimanoczy
I haven't talked to a person for as long as I can remember who didn't live under the pressure of increasing expectations and the increasing lack of time in which to meet them. Some people complain, others simply report on the pressure. And then there are those who recognize themselves when they hear others commenting on the demands of every day modern urban life. "Yes, I feel the same way!", or as a young professional recently responded when I mentioned how hard it is to ponder what we want out of our life, when we're constantly running to perform and meet deadlines. We can only determine the direction we want to go if we pause, I reflected, and he added, " No one needs that more than me!"
The expectations are both external but also internal, of course. The availability of time to complete what we tell ourselves (and others) we will do, is not shrinking because of some cosmic acceleration but rather because we try to pack more things into a day. Multitasking and giving insufficient attention to several things at the same time don't always bring us the expected results, and we often have to do things twice because we gave inadequate attention to the issue the first time.
Many corporations are starting to understand that employees have different levels of stress-tolerance, but at the end of the day all pay the price of this trip on the treadmill. Those organizations who realize this, are developing creative ways to help individuals get more balance. Google has a gym, a swim-in-place swimming pool (a narrow pool with a strong current that flows in one direction, and employees swim against the current, staying in place), billiards, ping pong tables and videogames.
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