Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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What's the rush?
Why is it that speed to get things done is often taken at the expense of quality? Is a poor job done fast better than a good job done in the time it takes? Well that may depend on the project and whether there are deadlines to be achieved. But it seems that for some, speed becomes a habit that colours every task undertaken. Not everything in the world needs to be done to a tight deadline, but it seems that we can go through our life treating everything we do as though every second counts.
A friend was telling me today about an 18 year old student in his gap year who was helping her on a community project in the church. He was anxious to please everybody but was actually pleasing no-one in his self imposed rush to achieve deadlines that actually were not real or required. My friend said he was quite a challenge to manage as they were more interested in getting the highest quality of work and letting the project take the time it takes.
We often create our own rush, worried abut getting the job done quickly. This is where speed overrides quality. Naturally there are many things that do have deadlines, but rather than just ticking boxes as 'done', it may be appropriate to reassess the situation and adjust timescales. Let's not rush this and take a closer look.
Rushing ahead often means that we are more interested in the 'tick', about gaining the end, rather than attending to the 'how'. By giving attention to the 'means whereby' however, by looking at 'how' we are doing things, we can often improve on everything to do with the project in hand, not least of all, how we functioning in the process.
Attending to one's use is a main focus of the Alexander Technique and we can actually inhibit our habitual tendencies to rush, also to avoid stiffening unnecessarily and getting personally off balance. We can often improve the way we are doing things, so we perform the task better from a personal and health point of view. And because we are working on the process rather than blindly rushing for the end result, we can think more clearly, give time to consider all the potentials and possible problems and adjust as we go along.
It's really helpful not to rush everything and to take the time to stand back, both physically or metaphorically to see just how things are progressing. There is the job to be done, and there is also the person doing the job....me. So how am I functioning? I like to think of a job done well is a situation where I applied myself well and looked after the workings of myself in the process. By giving time to situations, by giving ourselves time, we can see so much more and help ourselves achieve far higher standards in almost anything we apply ourselves to.
If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well. If a job is worth doing, it's worth making sure that the person doing the job (me) is functioning to my best. This involves making sure that we are breathing well, keeping our neck free (I've yet to see someone function at their best with a stiff neck) and generally be in balance....free and tall. With physical balance comes emotional centredness. In this condition we are likely to take the right decisions, to see things from a broader perspective and produce results of a far higher quality.
