I find inspiration in watching the workers from the Department of Motor Vehicles. One of the first times I was there I remember feeling frustrated. There were lines out the door. Most of the workers were working at a regular pace. “Work faster!” I thought. “Don’t you see the lines out the door ?!” Sometimes I would notice them talking amongst themselves. “What?!?” I screamed in my head.
When I worked at Arby’s and at Jack in the Box we had breakfast, lunch and dinner rushes. During those periods we worked extra fast. No time to chat amongst ourselves about sports, school, romance, etc. As the lines thinned we’d slow down. When there were few or no customers we’d chat amongst ourselves as we worked.
As I got older and had visited the DMV more frequently, I realized that no matter what time of the day I went, the lines were out the door. (And, yes, I eventually learned that I could make an appointment which saved me time.). I realized that lots of workers in California DMV’s rarely have much down time. The line is almost always long. Who can work 100 miles an hour, all day long, every day?
Good for them for pacing themselves, I concluded.
We can all learn from that. While there may be times that we have to push ourselves, we need to have balance.
A college student may have to stay up all night to finish a project, a parent of a new born may have oft-interrupted sleep for a few months, there may be times when meals are skipped due to busy schedules, etc. In the short term we can survive moments like this, but they should be the exception rather than the rule.
We need to take care of ourselves and monitor ourselves. We can’t be in crisis mode all day, every day. We’re not built for that. We will break down.
Yes, life is difficult. We may need to work more hours than we wish, commute longer than is advisable, etc., but hopefully we can find ways to simplify our lives so that our schedules and expectations are more reasonable.
While some people may need a kick in the pants to work a little harder, there are lots of others who push themselves too much, who are frustrated that they only finish 5 things a day on their to do list of 20.
When I was a social worker I had a delightful supervisor named Reiko. We had a wonderful relationship. We talked about many things from our philosophies of life to the policies of social work to politics. Over time we developed a relationship of deep trust. She supervised a unit that consisted of eight social workers. Some worked harder than others. She had a way of getting the most out of each of us. She knew each of our strengths and weaknesses. There were a couple of coworkers that spent some each day socializing rather than working diligently. (Each of them had been with the department for several years. When push came to shove they always came through and got the job done.) I remember asking her if it bothered her that they wasted time. She responded, “If I get 6 quality hours out of each worker we’ll be all right. They’re good workers.”
Reiko was right. Let’s pace ourselves and we’ll be ok.