Modern- day parable may help us to take life at a slower pace

THE MORE I look in the direction of how we create our experience, the more I find fascinating how we live in the pace of our thinking, rather than in the pace of life.

It’s interesting how our thoughts gently speed up, almost without us knowing, the little ‘ I’ve got to do’, ‘ I’ll just do’, ‘ I have to do’ thoughts, squeezing in that extra job, that extra thing on your list, maximising the time that you have to do the most amount of things. And each time we squeeze in another task, our lives get a little faster.

When we explore how our thinking creates the illusion of urgency, of lack of choice, and when we become more curious as to how true our thinking is, this naturally creates a space for us to slow down and really connect with that ‘ gut’ feeling of what we really need to do rather than what we ‘ think’.

This came up in a recent conversation; how we create a hamster wheel of doing more, of being more, of accumulating more all with the hope that one day we will stop and enjoy life.

It reminded my client of a parable she had heard, I thought I’d share it here.

A successful businessman was standing on the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a fisherman with a small boat came into shore. Inside his boat he had several fish. The businessman struck up a conversation with him, and asked how long he had fished that day.

‘ Not long’ replied the Mexican. The businessman asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more. The Mexican explained that he had enough for him and his family. This puzzled the businessman, and asked what did he do with the rest of his time?

The Mexican smiled, ‘ I lay in in the mornings, I fish, I play with my family, we take a siesta, walk to the village in the early evening, I drink wine and play my guitar with my amigos. My life is rich and full’.

The businessman laughed.

‘ I’m a successful businessman, I can help you, if you spent more time fishing you could buy a bigger boat, with the money you can create a fleet. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man you could sell directly to the processor, eventually owning your own cannery. You’d have to leave here and move to the city where you would run your successful and growing enterprise!’

The Mexican, looking confused, asked ‘ how long would all this take?’, the businessman smiled ‘ about 20 years’.

‘ And then what would I do?’ replied the Mexican.

The businessman laughed, ‘ that’s the best bit! At the height of your success you would sell your company and become very rich.

‘ Then what?’ replied the Mexican

‘ You’d retire!’ exclaimed the businessman. ‘ You would retire to a small coastal fishing village, lay in late, play with your family, take a siesta, walk to the village in the early evening, drink wine and play your guitar with your amigos. Your life would be rich and full.”

Andrea Morrison is a Transformational Coach, You can find her at andreamorrison. co. uk