The value of a minute

By: Young Person

The story may help you keep things in perspective when the world (or at least the problems in it) appear to spin out of control.

A guide to keeping things in perspective

It is often said that to realise the value of a year, talk to a student who just failed his finals. And to appreciate the value of a month you just have to ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.

But even a week can seem too much to handle mentally some times, let alone months and years. So often we are expected to have the rest of our lives planned out by the time we finish school. But sometimes we just need to slow down and live day by day, or even hour by hour.

Sometimes you have to break things down into smaller manageable 'bite size' problems and deal with things piece by piece.

At work I am famous for handing out schedules and plans and telling people that 'not meeting my deadlines is punishable by death'. In my job I am very good at working through tasks this way. I break things down into smaller problems and churn through them until everything I set out to do is done. But the minute I step out of my work environment it all changes.

Not so long ago I was put in a position where I had to make a decision that would ultimately affect the rest of my life. I worked myself into a state that until I had come to a decision I couldn't really function. I put so much energy into dealing with this that one day I turned up at work in my pyjamas because I forgot to get dressed. That day I realised things had to change.

In desperation I sought the advice of my mentor. At first he laughed at me because everyone, including him, thought I was the organisation queen. He found it hard to believe that I wasn't breaking this problem down and working through it in my usual step by step manner.

He told me to stand up and close my eyes and count sixty seconds, when I thought that one minute was up I had to sit down. So I stood up, closed my eyes and counted to sixty. Twenty seconds later I sat down. He then counted the real value of a minute out to me.

I surprised myself by how long a minute really was. What he was trying to tell me is that I'd spent so much energy focusing on this problem as a whole that my entire concept of time had flown out the window.

We talked about the problem and I realised that I could approach it in steps. There were a number of issues with in this one big issue, some that needed dealing with immediately, and other could wait till things became clearer.

I had thrown myself into this and decided that I had to sort the whole problem out with in a week. Suddenly a week felt like only a few minutes, and my stress levels grew to an unacceptable level. When my perception of time was in perspective and I had planned out how I was going to deal with the task at hand I was back to being my control freak self again.