Today, the world is crazy about speed. Speed is considered as a parameter of progress. The faster the person, the more progressive he is considered. People are considered powerful, strong and competent in proportion to their speed of doing work. In fact, nowadays people get irritated by slowness. They consider speed as their pride and are found seeking various remedies to augment it. Whether it is their car or the RAM of their mobile or computer, they look for more and more speed everywhere; and why not? Slow speed leads to wastage of time, resources and wealth, while by moving faster all of these are conserved. But the question to ponder over is that – Will this high speed be able to lead us to joy, are we able to attain our desired results? Is this high speed our inner requirement or whether it is a prerequisite for the modern lifestyle? Are we actually turning out to be the servants of speed? All these questions are seeking their answers from us today.
It is a convention and belief that the faster the pace of one’s life, the more progressive he is considered. An American author, Anthony George once said – I am a big advocate of speed. My life is incomplete without it. I believe that speed or intensity is directly associated with our hormones. There is something mysterious in our blood which causes us to like everything which is fast. I know that speed is dangerous as well, it could also be life-threatening. But still, I could not keep myself away from it. It was unfortunate that the author, who was so obsessed with speed, lost his life at a very young age only because of it.
David Mastin, a former professor of Harvard Business School reached the conclusion on the basis of a research that – Every generation is being faster than its preceding one. This means that its learning speed is better than that of its predecessor, it is able to assimilate every information with double the speed and has a sharp memory as well. In the present time, speed is directly being related to success.
Accordingly, if an individual works with a slower pace, it would mean that he is a bit lethargic in his work and therefore, unsuccessful. Do we really need to run fast every time, in spite of the fact that we know that life is neither a race nor a competition. Yet, everybody is busy in looking for competitors and trying to move beyond them. They keep competing with them everyday and set a criterion for ensuring their progress. While the truth is that no matter how much progress a person makes in his materialistic life, he lags behind that much in his inner or spiritual life and becomes more and more ignorant of himself.
“Balance, peace, and joy are the fruit of a successful life. It starts with recognizing your talents and finding ways to serve others by using them. – Thomas Kinkade”
Source: Akhand Jyoti Magazine May-June 2019