Monday, November 16, 2009

Train yourself to get off speed...

My neighbor Hal took up NASCAR racing over the weekend, a birthday celebration that gifted him with speeds reaching 151.73 mph—which really isn’t that fast compared to the internet and texting. I’m still freaked out about how someone on the West coast can speak in real time with me in the Carolinas.


I wanted to ask Hal if he felt extremely young upon his return—he had been to the future and back! When someone moves that quickly it has to put him in a different time zone. The average bicycle cruises along at barely 15 mph and look what it does to your system? Millions of people jog everyday while millions of others question their dedication. Does someone who runs or walks make invisible waves inside the circles of time set? No…the amount of time required to put in a mile or ten takes just as long to sit at home doing nothing.


How fast does one have to travel in order to catch up? You can’t…sleep and falling behind at work is like a Carolina midsummer drought…once you start losing, the total impact is an act that can never be made up. You deal with what’s been lost by becoming aware of how you are currently getting ahead.


A very good and longtime friend owns not one but two Renaissance Festivals—when the cold November rains become part of the game, invited into the channels I keep are rivers of fear based on him having failure. Not so… He stands to lose in the department of success by having such festivities during months of incredible heat. Accepted is the change of weather making what he does a part of the season not just any reason. I remember him telling me in the extremely bare hills of Arizona, “I plan ahead for weather and abnormal economic conditions…I can’t control them and although it seems like a loss, what I gained in years past makes everything I do today…equal.”


It’s like the Stock Market hitting its highest numbers in fifty two weeks—to the average consumer, it doesn’t mean Jack. Behind closed doors each passing day rebuilds this nation’s foundation which puts pride back in the steps of those who’ve invested their earnings in a product that nearly became extinct. Leaping upward to just over 10,250 this past Friday was pretty much 151.73 mph or putting the right foot in front of the other for a single twenty four hour period.


I personally have a problem with time. The more I attempt to manage it the harder it is to keep up. Two years ago I crawled onboard a different ship based on placing my hands on anything and everything that seems and is extremely boring. I learned while sitting in traffic how incredibly slow the big and little hands move when nose nostril deep in a serious pile of something not so exciting.


By locating boredom I’m fully capable of being in control of how time is delivered. It starts with sitting on your front lawn doing nothing more than staring at six billion fallen leaves—if you get up to rake them off what little green is left in your lawn, you elected to speed up time. If you lay on the leaves and reshape the passing clouds 1pm doesn’t become 3…it become 1:01pm.


Play the observation game at work. Take what you’ve been delivered and lay out each project side by side to do nothing more but observe the presentation by way of slowing down time. Suddenly leaping into a project through no better reason than getting the job done steals from every reason why you’ve made this your career. Savor the chocolate left in the corners of your lips. Gently lick the curved edges of your teeth freeing a hidden piece of caramel corn still holding enough energy to make you go, “Mmmmm.”


Although movie critics pasted bad comments all over it, worldwide this past weekend, John Cusack’s new film 2012 raked in over $200 million. Experts claim it’s because every nation and nationality shares one thing in common, fear of the unknown. While the Mayan and several other calendars drop from the surface of the planet to which we walk on December 21, 2012…Hollywood directors are cruising along at 151.75 mph to score the perfect opportunity to nab a few extra bucks before we all go ka-blowie.


While moving so quickly, I wonder if Hal could see the future. Did he at anytime feel like a modern day DVR player screaming past television commercials? Could he have been racing faster than the next song selected on the Ipod? During those three laps, was he gifted with enough power to leap from the car and catch the Twilight sequel New Moon then get back in time to feel his friends arms embrace him?


I’m sure it would be easier to just ask him…but why? Getting an answer always steals from the hunks of meat left in your teeth connected to the imagination. The art of creating an unexpected Mmmmm went out with dial up AOL.


Getting back to living…steal my art.


arroecollins@clearchannel.com

No comments:

Post a Comment