I'm a recovering "Rushaholic"

Do you just ever find yourself rushing for nothing?

Moving from one thing to the next as fast as possible.

The next thing you know the whole day has gone by, you’ve accomplished a lot (or sometimes not because being busy is not always being productive).

When you get to the evening time, you try to unwind but you just can’t.

You just feel wired, walking around like a pack of nerves that can’t relax so you continue rushing between making dinner, the dishes, finishing the laundry, taking out the trash, etc…

Then you try to watch TV to “force” yourself to relax, but there is still that underlying tension in your body from a whole day of “rushing” and then it’s bed time and it makes it more challenging for you to fall asleep?

Do you ever feel that?

Maybe it’s just me ahah

When my wife and I were traveling through Asia for 3 months, there was a big sense of calmness that started to take over us as we visited different countries like the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, etc…

Even though we were grabbing a flight every single week to our next destination, there was a sense of peace that came over me as we progressed in our adventures.

Maybe it was the different culture we were experiencing that is in my opinion a lot more calm than Western culture. Where there isn’t this “hustle” energy of “go-go-go” happening all around you. Where people don’t wear being busy and exhausted as a badge of honor as a representation of identity to show that we are somehow more “worthy” because we are busy.

Throughout my countless digital detox weeks I’ve discovered that doing nothing once a month is the most productive thing I’ve ever done for myself, my health and my mental health.

In the midst of traveling I think there came a point where I decided to give up the tightness, that sense of hurry that was inside of me.

Traveling always used to make me nervous, not because of the plane, but because I wanted to make sure we got there early enough, to drop off our luggage, go through security and get to our gate on time to grab our flight.

But as we were taking flights often (about 19 in 3 months), I was getting so tired from being so tense so I just decided to give up the tightness out of tiredness.

I just accepted that things would go smoothly and that if they didn’t, I would deal with it whenever it came up versus trying to obsess and control every little detail ahead of time (which I wasn’t really but it made my head feel good thinking that I did).

So that in combination with the peaceful Asian culture we were experiencing REALLY relaxed me and slowed me down because there was no need to rush.

Then I started to catch myself in different areas of life where I was speeding up for no reason.

And it was in the smallest and silliest things that didn’t need to be sped up.

I was rushing and going fast to wash my face, brush my teeth, write in my journal every morning, read my book every morning. Drinking my water, my coffee, eating food, etc… you get the pattern.

I didn’t realize that I was a rushaholic.

I started to catch myself more and more and really slow down my movements to be more present with them and more intentional.

It brought on a sense of peace that I had never experienced in my adult life before.

Now having been back from Asia for two months now, I can feel myself speeding back up again.

I can feel myself rushing things for no darn reason.

I feel like I can feel the energy of the people around me, in my city, in the gym where everyone feels like they are in a rush.

I have to force myself and catch myself more often to take a big breath.

Slow down my movement and really be intentional with what I’m doing.

It’s hard and don’t get me wrong I’m not perfect at all.

I don’t have a solution for you, because if I did I’d be doing it right now ahah

But I am trying to be more cautious about how I structure my day so things aren’t on a back-to-back tight schedule.

I’m intentionally leaving myself more time in the morning to have a slower morning because I found that if I wake up and feel tight on time then I’ll most likely have to fight the rush energy all day long.

I even bought myself a proper espresso machine to add a slower ritual to my morning routine and I’ve been geeking out on the different grains, how fine to grind it, the extraction time and weight. I’ve been working on perfecting my latte art in the morning.

The only thing is that Ivy has to wait a bit longer for her morning coffee which she’s still getting adjusted to ahah

I wanted to share my story of being a recovering “Rushaholic” because nothing has made my life better than slowing down (besides eating whole foods and exercising).

Focusing on a slower life, slower eating, slower task production, has forced me to be more intentional with where I put my time and effort.

I’ve cancelled many projects, cancelled many meetings or delayed a few things just to ensure that I can do quality work and focus on the things that matter to me like quality time with my wife, serving our clients and writing + recording podcast episodes.

I know this is a lifelong journey and that I will have to navigate the natural tendency to lean more towards “rushing” and going faster. I think it comes with having a type A personality and living in the society that we live in.

I know many people are slowly starting to wake up and get tired with how society has been built and what has been put on a pedestal which is one of the many reasons why I decided to stop following the norm and do my 7-day monthly digital detoxes on the first 7 days of the month, why I ate the way I eat, where I don’t have social media on my phone, why I focus on creating more than I consume and why I make sure that I have time to be bored out of my mind because that is when my nervous system resets and my best ideas come from.

Thank you for reading,

Sincerely,

Maxime Sigouin