V = Velocity – Chuck Morris

V = Velocity

Most of us at some point in our life have been behind the wheel or in the passenger seat of a car going a ‘little’ faster than it should have been travelling. Some of us may even have had an opportunity to actually race down a quarter-mile track in something somewhat faster than allowed on the street.

The Cadillac CTS-V is a ride that should be experienced by many! This car has an ability to travel very quickly; streetready, the CTS-V comes from the factory with a heart thumping 556 horsepower! In the United States, a company called Hennessy Performance will take an engine and slightly modify it to increase its horsepower. They did this with the CTS-V; now pumping out over 700 street-legal horsepower, this fourdoor sedan has become a sensation. It will go from 0-60 mph in less than three seconds; it will cover a quarter-mile in less than 10 seconds. From a standing start, it will cover one mile reaching a top speed for the mile at 183 mph! That’s 294 kilometers per hour, folks! The ‘V’ in the CTS-V name actually stands for ‘velocity’ – and for good reason.

Does your day at work sound anything like the ‘V’? I know mine does from time to time, and learning how to deal with that can be really tough! We may not feel the same exhilaration as one would in the example above, but nonetheless our days have become very, very hectic.

Regardless of why, we need to develop a method to deal with the overload in a fashion that will allow some breathing room. Today’s technology actually drives some of the hectic pace at which we find ourselves living our lives. Take email as an example; it has become a force to be reckoned with! How many legitimate emails do you receive each day? I know some people who average between 80 and 150 each and every day! Spam filters keep most of the nonsense out so a response may be required for only some of those emails.

How often do you look at your in-basket? Probably far too often! Do you have your notification set so it alerts you each time a new email arrives? Part of our problem is the feeling we need to respond right away. This has become an instantaneous world. We are all very busy, but we do not need to traumatize ourselves by adding to that workload by responding to emails 50 times a day, in the evenings and on weekends. All of the work generated by email alone is responsible for much of the ‘velocity’ we feel.

Now let’s add something else to the mix! Your Smartphone, though a wonderful tool that allows you to do a myriad of things on the fly, has become an extension of our office, carried on our hip! Wow! We have all witnessed interruptions at meetings, ringing of the phone or buzzing from vibration alerts. Think about your daily life and how often you pull your Smartphone out to check your emails. I would hazard a guess it is about once every ten minutes, or each time your alert notifies you. (I’m as guilty as anyone else.)

The Blackberry has become known as the Crackberry, and for good reason! All one needs to do is look around, practically anywhere, and you will see someone pulling it out or texting or emailing or talking on the phone. It has added to the stress levels in many lives by increasing our workloads wherever you may be.

Did you know that on February 4th, 2008, the Citizenship and Immigration Department of the Federal Government directed all its employees to stop using their Blackberries on evenings and weekends? The Minister was concerned about the work/life balance of the employees. There was a major concern about the well-being of the employees and their

Why is it drug addicts and computer aficionados are both called users? ~ Clifford Stoll ~

families, as it was becoming apparent there was no balance in that work environment. We should be concerned about it as well! Stress kills; we have all heard that and some of us may even have witnessed it. Why would we want to do that to ourselves? We all need to find the balance between our work life and home life. It is a value we need to ensure we honour, not only for ourselves but for those at home, too.

In one of his online blogs, Soren Lauritzen suggests we need to change our beliefs. He hypostatizes that you get something positive from your behaviour; the behaviour you exhibit by checking your email every ten minutes. He may be right! He further suggests, as have many others, that turning off the email notification is a must. Try to practice checking your email once every three or four hours instead. Someone important might try to get in touch with you? You likely have voicemail or you may have left a message advising them where you are. For your own health, turn it off!

Are you dependent on your Blackberry? Do you use it to excess? I would hazard a guess that many of us use that device excessively. This is the time to really think about how you use your Smartphone and how you can adjust your behaviour in order to give yourself a better balance between work life and home life. This one thing alone will cause your day to slow down a little, reducing your ride perhaps enough that you can see what is passing you by; 294 kilometres an hour is a velocity that demands your attention. Slow down so some of that attention can be diverted to where it should be; on you and your life as a whole. Start by turning off your email notifications, and try adjusting the frequency with which you check those emails. Help yourself!