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When I was seventeen years old, I had a colleague in high school, Brian was his name.
Brian was the football team quarterback, the best basketball player in the valley, and extremely popular. One day we shared the same table for lunch near the public library. I believe he was curious to know more about the short exchange student from Portugal.
We had a lovely conversation, and after so many questions about Europe, I asked him if he never wished to try out a similar experience and live on another cultural shoe for some time.
He thought for a moment, smiled, and replied: “I don’t have time for this!”
Adding: “I need to finish high school as fast as possible, I also need to work in my spare time to save money for college, that I can finish my studies quickly and try to get a job immediately after.”
When he finished talking, I was hesitating between breathing, leaving the table, or openly ask him where he wanted to get so fast?
Honestly, I don’t know if I replied at all, but I remember to keep thinking about this event for many years and question myself. What was Brian’s final destination, and why he wanted to get there so fast?
A few days ago, I was reviewing one of my favorite texts, an activity I like to alternate between new books. You might have heard about the story — Tuesdays with Morrie. If you haven’t read it, you should.
In the book, one of the characters claims that the main reason why people roll their eyes if somebody talks for longer than thirty seconds are our attention deficit.
Part of the problem is because everyone seems to be in a hurry.
All the time and every day. Our phone calls are fast; We write e-mails quickly, We eat fast, we don’t sleep much, we love rapidly. The list goes on but I leave it to you to complete.
And because we don’t find meaning in what we do, either our personal lives or activities, we keep running and searching for the next big thing.
Did you ever think about that? How fast are you going? And by the way, where are you going? Are you late for something?
I hope my friend Brian, wherever he is in the world, is now able to enjoy a little more what every day has to give us.
If you don’t have time for this, you can stop here. Otherwise, I invite you to watch a video with Morrie Schwartz, and you might be curious about the book I mentioned before.
Not by chance, the first step in the Walking Mentorship methodology is called Slow Down. We can only see and hear certain things when there are no distractions around. In March and April, we will have two Offline programs in very special locations. These four days and three nights might be just what you need right now. Until then,
Keep walking with me,
João Perre Viana
Founder of Walking Mentorship
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