An unfortunate reality of the modern world is that slowing down and enjoying life can be challenging. Between household, family, career, extracurricular activities, and other personal responsibilities and commitments, it’s easy to find yourself on the go from morning until night with few stops in between.
Unfortunately, there is a good chance this kind of fast-paced lifestyle will catch up with you at some point. While constantly being on the go may seem necessary to keep up with the demands of our society (not to mention the “Jones”), it can hurt many aspects of your life, especially if left unchecked over time.
Here’s a closer look at six ways a fast-paced life can negatively impact your future.
- Lack of Clarity
Clarity is vital in finding meaning, purpose, and balance.
It is not uncommon for people to hurry throughout life, filling their days with meaningless activities without thinking about what and why they are doing whatever they are doing. Over time, this fast-paced lifestyle can lead to frustration and burnout.
To help alleviate this problem, you need to get clear. You need to understand clarity and why it is essential to your physical and mental health.
Clarity is knowing where you are going, what you are doing, and why you are doing it. You may not have all the answers, but you live with intention. You are on a path. When you don’t have clarity, you don’t feel inwardly settled and confident about what you are doing and where you are headed. You can’t seem to relax. Your lack of clarity can lead to feelings of confusion, overwhelm, and anxiety.
To get clarity around the most critical areas of life, you must slow down, focus, and clear your head. Some quiet down time can help you weigh your options, define your values, set clear goals, gather information, consider the consequences, and act based on the best available information. You will make better decisions.
There is almost always more than one way to achieve your goals, but you need a clear vision of where you want to go to get there. It’s tough to achieve this level of clarity if you are constantly distracted by everything you “have” to do daily.
2. Poor physical and mental health
Living a hectic and frantic life can also lead to poor physical and mental health. It is especially true if you can’t find the time to exercise, prepare and eat healthy foods, or get enough sleep. Consistently fitting these activities into your schedule requires planning and preparation. It can be a real challenge when you fill your days with meetings, work obligations, running errands, caring for elderly parents, spouses, and children, or school assignments and mindlessly scrolling social media. Without the proper care, you may encounter various physical and mental health conditions, such as recurrent viral infections, depression, anxiety, and burnout.
3. Impaired personal relationships
A demanding lifestyle can mean little or no time to focus on meaningful relationships with your family and friends. This can lead to a breakdown in communication and connection. When you have more time to build solid, high-quality relationships, they will be more fulfilling and rewarding. The older you get, the more vital social connection becomes. While being “too busy” to cultivate valuable relationships is easy, it can affect your future in ways you never imagined. People are precious. If you are fortunate enough to have good people in your life, consider taking the time to cultivate those relationships mindfully.
4. Lack of creativity and innovation
Finding creative solutions to challenges can be problematic when constantly rushing. There is nothing wrong with being fast and efficient. The problem is that “fast” isn’t always synonymous with “efficient.” Sometimes, slowing down and thinking of innovative ways to fix a problem, rather than diving in without all the information, is best.
5: Unfulfilled ambitions
The focus on being busy can lead to unfulfilled ambitions due to needing more time to pursue your actual goals and dreams. You may even lose sight of them altogether. You may start to feel lost. If you lack time to focus on personal growth and development, it’s hard to know what you need to learn to do the things you want and need to do.
6: Financial insecurity
If your life is hectic, you may focus on making money quickly rather than building a sustainable financial future. It’s much better to follow a plan built around balance and sustainability rather than on short-term or risky profits.
How to Modify Your Approach
It may seem impossible to climb down from your hampster wheel and take a breath, but you can survive and thrive in a fast-paced world without completely burning out.
Here are a few ways:
- Learn How To Prioritize: Prioritizing is a fine art, but you can start and grow from where you are. You may have to dig deep and identify what matters most to you to prioritize. Prioritizing gives you the ability to do more in less time. I do a deep dive into the power of prioritizing in this article.
- Create a Plan to Manage Your Stress: Stress comes in all shapes and sizes and is an integral part of life. As a result, you need a game plan to manage your stress. It does not need to be complicated. Start by listing the activities or non-activities that allow you to calm down. Next, schedule a recurring time in your diary or day planner to pursue those activities until they become a habit.
- Reduce Distractions: Limit distractions in your home, workplace, and head. It sounds simple but is highly effective. When we have too many distractions in our lives, it can lead to unnecessary busyness or, worse, avoidance. A cluttered house or workplace can negatively impact our ability to focus. A beeping phone can distract us from an important work project. Distractions are insidious because they are usually cloaked as something else.
- Create a Dedicated Space in Your Week to Think: This can be hard. Start by scheduling 30 minutes weekly to think about everything affecting your life. If this becomes overwhelming, take a pen and paper and create a brain dump of “everything.” Now, all the thoughts that plague you during the week are on paper, and you can decide what (if anything) to do with them. This process will help you to get better at prioritizing, managing stress, and reducing/eliminating distractions. You will be surprised at how you will emerge from this time more relaxed, focused, and confident that your life is going in the right direction.
- Revisit Your Dreams, not Just Your Goals: Too often, we only focus on our goals from week to week. Over time, we lose sight of our dreams, you know, that vision that we are unconsciously working on like forever. The dream that informed our goals in the first place. Remember to check in regularly to make sure you are on track.
Final Thoughts
A fast-paced life may seem like the only option to keep up with all the conflicting demands on your time, but the consequences and pitfalls can be significant. Block out some quiet time so you can step back and evaluate your life with clear eyes.
Saying “no” to more activities can free up your time to prioritize your health, personal relationships, and financial stability. Once these areas align, you’ll find it easier to make good choices and accomplish your goals. Ultimately, slowing down and clarifying your direction can lead to a much more satisfying and fulfilling life.
Be well + prosper,
Elaine xx
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