The Benefits of Pausing

The amount of stress that is put upon you every day is increasing.

Instead of increasing your stress by pushing yourself too hard, it's important to take time to pause. Instead of letting everything you come into contact with master you, try mastering your environment, only letting those things you choose come into your consciousness. Trying to do too many things at once only leads to stress. Taking a strategic pause every now and then can lessen the time pressure you feel.

A major magazine editorial lauded one of their senior writers who died of a massive heart attack at age 44. They described him as a "vivid personality, first-class intellect, bracing professionalism." The editorial/obituary said that this fellow did an extraordinary number of things extraordinarily well.

He vigorously filled his post and also wrote extensively about politics, social issues, the media, and books. In addition to those things, he frequently appeared on TV panels, ready to express provocative, but well-thought-out opinions. This gentleman lectured, wrote books, and freelanced for other publications. Amazingly, they said that he had a wide, varied circle of friends, people at every level.

I was aghast when the editorial/obituary said that this fellow rarely did fewer than two things at once and lauded him for doing so. He "opened his mail while discoursing on story ideas. When he went to lunch with a co-worker, he often took a book." Apparently, he never turned down an assignment and attacked the most mundane task as if a Pulitzer Prize "depended on it."

The piece concluded by observing that this gentleman had a forthcoming book wherein he decried that "it was a simple fact that some people are better than others—smarter, harder working, more learned, more productive, harder to replace."

Don't the good people at this magazine understand that cramming everything into your life at hyper speed leads to early death? I wrote to the magazine following this commentary, although I didn't expect them to answer. I asked, "Where was the reflection in his life? When did he pause? When did he ever reset his body clock? I understood that he was a notable individual, but to praise him publicly for doing two things at once, and in the same breath recount that he died of 'a massive heart attack at 44,' is dripping with irony."

This person was the antithesis of someone who masters his environment. Rather, he let all assignments, all intellectual queries, all interests, anything, apparently, that appeared on his personal radar screen, master him.