Time isn’t and never will be my friend, family or foe. Arriving three hours early is four hours too late!
The white goofy rabbit rushing through Alice in Wonderland will never live up to the tremendous amount of energy I send through each twenty four hour period. No tick on the wavering clock tocks without me walking toward the unknown purpose; I demand a solid guarantee to be who it is I’ll become hours before the expected so I can physically prepare for the unexpected.
How sick is this? Legendary rocker Grace Slick from Jefferson Starship painted a canvas for me featuring my bunny competition peacefully sitting on Alice’s lap.
I find no reason to hide this weakness; which could explain my lack of having a West coast lifestyle and radio show even in the smallest of cities that make up California. Those there are constantly fifteen minutes to an hour late which is a perfectly ripe orange, peach, strawberry and if physically possible a giant head of green lettuce.
During the 90’s Dr David the head doctor took his bright yellow number two pencil and scratched into the square living tree called paper, “This patient suffers from an addiction to excitement. If he isn’t racing toward deadlines he’ll create finish lines causing him to go until he can’t.”
The cure for such a wickedly out of control mess of a mind isn’t to locate more work…doing so has made the path of choice a tremendous failure. The doctor claims the best un-drug to shove into the system is to find a place to do nothing more than write. Which I believe might be the message Grace Slick was sending me in the painting.
No bike riding! No bowling tournaments or edge of your seat full contact hitting and kicking Tae Kwon Do. Not even a run for the boarder to toss down a ten pack of tacos smothered in super hot sauce to kill the non-beef flavor.
Waddling from side to side down the heavily crowded blvd’s that make up Santa Barbara, California a lone one owner book store in 1994 guided my blank, blank, blank and crammed the edges of a Montana made nose into a pool of honest approaches called The Artist Way from Julia Cameron. That book made time controllable.
Interestingly enough…there are opposites to this sort of addiction; brothers, sisters, coworkers, best friends and martial partners that couldn’t find the hands of a clock if it was attached to their contact lenses.
Getting a grip on the importance of time doesn’t find importance on a growing number of all people not just Californian’s. I always believed Ted Turner’s TBS started their shows five minutes late to better serve those addicted to not being ahead of schedule. His networks decision to stay late made everyone comfortable with being late. Today, having a DVR linked to your flat screen not only exceeds the limits of accepting laziness but it’s taken over our total focus. Because we’ve been trained to hit instant rewind…it’s changed our listening habits. It’s become accepted behavior to calmly say, “What?”
The stepfather Joe found reason to bash us when we’d “what” him, “I’ll show you what!”
Being on time or a little ahead is the goal. To achieve it without feeling like a time whore begins with leaving for work or a July 4th celebration ten minutes early.
Stress makes you less productive. It’s more difficult to concentrate while under pressure. Mood swings are of many when time is set aside and not taken seriously. According to the Daily Challenge leaving ten minutes earlier creates a cushion for you to fall back on.
The best example of bad timing habits is the beltway. After nearly thirty years of open debate, tax concern conversations and physical construction I-485 surrounding Charlotte can’t handle the enormous amount of daily traffic and without a doubt remains incomplete on its northern curve. Local leaders stayed on time when constructing the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Time Warner Cable Arena? It didn’t matter how loud neighborhoods complained the reinvention of South Park Mall never stopped.
I laugh while watching Red Bull and Monster power drink guzzlers and coffee addicted survivors; the majority of those painting their insides with manmade poisons lack the true connection as to why they are constantly drained. There’s no motivation in the hours tainted by a need to always be late. The entire process is nothing more than a game of catch up.
With two minutes to spare, I’ve never understood how radio jocks can rush into a station control room and creatively come up with a show that’s worth listening to. I’ve heard every excuse from I’m that good to I do my show prep at home to there’s no easier job on earth than talking over a song intro.
They’re also the people that claim the industry is terrestrial and near its death and yet new studies show 1.9 million new listeners switched from satellite and CD’s back to the old fashioned way of singing out loud and proud in the front seat their car and at work. How? The other side of radio, having an addiction to excitement or a need to be somewhere three hours a head of time generated enough space to map out a listeners life and realize smart phones, Ipads, Xooms and the overused office tower can easily hook up to Aps and streaming websites.
We found the outlet, now if we can only figure out a way to create the right content to keep you listening longer than seven seconds. It’s not going to come from someone who’s always running late. Your business is no different. Truth is…the reason why the recession won’t end has nothing to do with banks, big business and expensive gas. Why should it be on time when the importance of time is the last thing on your mind?
Ten minutes early will change your life forever.
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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