Just want to share with you guys this article forwarded by a friend.
Take every moment of your life nice and slow :-)
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It's been 18 years since I joined Volvo, a Swedish company. Working for them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes 2 years to be finalized, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It's a rule.
Globalized processes have caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results. Therefore, we have come to possess a need to see immediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.
Said in another words:
1. Sweden is about the size of San Pablo, a state in Brazil.
2. Sweden has 9 million inhabitants.
3. Stockholm has 500,000 people.
4. Volvo, SAAB/Scania, Ericsson, Electrolux, Nokia are some of its owned companies. Volvo supplies the NASA.
The first time I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their car to work). The first day, I didn't say anything, either on the second or third. One morning I asked, "Do you have a fixed parking space? I've noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot." To which he replied, "Since we're here early we'll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need a place closer to the door, don't you think?" Imagine my face.
Nowadays, there's a movement in Europe named Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with the family, friends, without rushing. Slow Food is against its counterpart: the spirit of Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.
Basically, the movement questions the sense of "hurry" and "craziness" generated by globalization, fueled by the desire of "having in quantity" (life status) versus "having with quality", "life quality" or the "quality of being". French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity driven up by 20%. This slow attitude has brought forth the US's attention, pupils of the fast and the "do it now!"
This no-rush attitude doesn't represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the "now", present and concrete, versus the "global", undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans' essential values, the simplicity of living.
It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive where humans enjoy doing what they know best how to do. It's time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence of spirit.
In the movie, Scent of a Woman, there's a scene where Al Pacino asks a girl to dance and she replies, "I can't, my boyfriend will be here any minute now." To which Al responds, "A life is lived in an instant." Then they dance to a tango.
Many of us live our lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious of living the future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly exists. We all have equal time throughout the world. No one has more or less. The difference lies in how each one of us does with our time. We need to live each moment. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
Congratulations for reading till the end of this message. There are many who will have stopped in the middle so as not to waste time in this globalized world.
4 comments:
Base on my opinion, perfection is not bad but sometimes it is. The time we eager to be perfect, we tend to grow and increase our capabilities without knowing that simplicity decreases inch by inch. When we do things perfectly as often, it keeps us dissatisfied when something wrong came up. When we want to be perfect, our personality change and it change the way how we look and manage our life. We became choosy and we know how to step on one's foot. Being perfect = no peace of mind. The only good thing in being a perfectionist person, there is always a "quality" in their work and their work is competetive enough. They know how to face failures and they can face risk head on. They are eager for challenges and tends to learn more and more until they reaches the top of the mountain.
Not like when you are being simple, you tend to be always feel happy, contented on what you have and especially have peace of mind. The only problem here is that when you are too simple, you tend not to grow and just contented on what you have. You dont dare to risk or face the challenges in your life. There is sometimes no "quality" on your work and sometimes you are not efficient enough to do the task. Inspite of that, the ideas of simple people are more great than the perfectionist one because they think base on what they feel, experience or for others, not like the perfectionist people they only think for the fame of theirselve. They think for the cause and effect without having any obejectives at all, there are lot of things came through thei mind but they can't formulate one.In that way perfectionist people cannot easily formulate objectives by their own but they are good in enhancing or improving simple person's opinions, work or objectives.
I think it is better not be perfect, nor not to be simple For me i believe that we must be simple, effective and efficient. When we combine the three words (simple+effective+efficient)it is > and not = to perfection. Therefore the three words are more better than perfection.:)
Thank you so much for sharing your opinions on the posted article.
What we need today is "to be aware on how to balance our life" Inspite of the changes happened to our world which actually and sometimes rule our life or way of living that we tend to forget about where are we.
With the changes happened to us, we tend to forget and feel the natural happiness in life. We sometimes depend on things behind the improvement in our way of living or lifestyle.
Like when you're at work, you think about deadlines and important thing that needs to be done.
Now, you’re on a rush. Thinking on how to impress your boss with your outputs then thinking about your salary increase after a job well done and things that you'd like to buy.
With this, we forgot to enjoy what we’re doing at work.
Yes, we need to be effective at work but not to the point you forget about yourself. Isn't nice to just relax and think of the best way on how to improve your quality and productivity without rushing? Enjoying what you are doing at work like you were just playing? Thinking about the accomplishment?
The feeling of fulfillment out of things you've enjoyed while working was really satisfying than out of stressed and pressured time invested to achieve what needs to be done.
Enjoyment is one thing and happiness is another thing. When we tend to keep enjoying we almost take the happiness for ourselves.
When whe tend to be always happy we almost forget how to enjoy our life. Why is it like this?
Base on my opinion, enjoyment has two meaning. Enjoyng just to pretend you are happy or enjoying because you want to forget past memories.Many of us always pretending that we are happy eventhough it is not. We keep on pretending that we enjoy everything eventhough it is not. We don't want other people to notice our downside because we don't want to accept the word "symphathy" for the bery reason of the word pride.Many people enjoy life to the fullest just to keep cover of their sadness.
Many people also tell everybody that they are happy but they didn't know how to enjoy
life.Many people always fooling theirselves just to pretend who they are but in reality they are not. Enjoyment is not a word or an act but it is how you implement happiness in your life.
Not all the word enjoyment contains happiness and not all happiness contains the word enjoyment. Pepople should do happiness as an enjoyment in order for them to find the true meaning = "love+satisfaction+peace" When we are happy and we enjoy our life we tend to love more than ever. We tend to be satisfy and at peace. But for me, we can't attain both because there is no such thing as "perfect". I think if both elements are present there will be no challenges to face and we will not learn and grow from our past and from our mistakes. May be co-existence is impossible because we are always feel satisfaction, there will be no productivity = no living.
For me it is better to say "I'm Ok or I'm Contented" than to say "I'm happy or I really enjoy it" because no one knows if people really feel it, for the very reason that no one knows it's own phenomenology.
thank you for sharing this article. it's truly an eye opener.
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