“Where is the Life we have lost in living?”   T.S. Eliot

by Dwight Edwards

            Up at 6:30 – to school by 8 – to work by 8:30 – first meeting at 9 – two morning appointments – a working lunch – pick up the kids from school – tennis lessons at 5 – dinner at 7 – homework – bing…boing…bing.

            Ever feel like your life is a never-ending pinball game; continually bouncing back and forth from activity to activity, deadline to deadline, meeting to meeting, crisis to crisis? When was the last time you took a couple of hours off to simply rest, recharge, and reflect? Or is that even a category these days?

            Perhaps the word that best describes many of our lives is frenetic. Fast moving, hard charging, rest challenged…was life really meant to be lived at such a dizzying pace? And what is the cost of this mad frenzy? Or, in the words of T.S. Eliot, “Where is the life we have lost in the living?”

            Interestingly, the word frenetic comes from a Greek word which means “inflammation of the mind” or “delirious”. And therein lies the great danger of our warp-speed lifestyles. In the midst of the madness of our daily routines it becomes desperately easy to lose touch with reality – i.e. the reality of what matters most in life. We become delirious from the feverish, frantic pace we keep; and thus our sensitivity to matters of supreme importance is greatly and tragically diminished.

            Two things become critical to keep in mind when our pace of living is wreaking havoc with our satisfaction of soul. We will only look at the first one today. Simply put - activity does not guarantee productivity. Writer Alfred Montapert put it well, “Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.”

            A busy schedule does not guarantee a productive life. Exhaustion at the end of the day can be the result of great productivity or well-intentioned but misdirected strivings. Hard work is essential for success in any field, but its sweat must drip along the best lines to gain maximum benefit. Many of us need to become nothing less than ruthless in evaluating our activities. Do they help bring us closer to reaching our predetermined goals? Or are they seductively disguised diversions persuading us to exchange the quiet best for the noisy good? Seldom are the wisest paths for peak performance the widest or most visible.

Flashpoint: The extraordinary life is lived at the intersection of working hard and working smart.