[Introduction] [Chapter 1] [Special Offer]

Making Life Rich Without Any Money

P A R T   O N E

RICH PEOPLE KNOW THE SPEED LIMIT

Three years ago, something happened that forced me to pull out of the fast lane. And look around for the answers.

"The trouble with being in the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat." -Lily Tomlin
 

C H A P T E R    O N E

Slowing down in a speeded up world

Not far from our home a tiny pond rests, shaded by elder bushes and nourished by underground streams. At night I occasionally stroll past the pond, watching ducks practice their runway approaches amid the choruses of redwing blackbirds and the croaking of mud-drenched frogs. But tonight all is quiet. Tonight a hot dry summer has taken its toll and there is no blackbird chorus. No croaking frogs. No splash landings.

The pond, you see, is drying up.

Three years ago right now I felt like that pond. Flat on my back, I was finished. Caput. Burned out.

Five years on a treadmill had taken its toll. Five years of chasing dreams, but finding little sleep. Of pursuing success, but finding little peace. Midnights writing books had been tacked on to fifty-hour work weeks, weekend speaking engagements, and the nurturing of a growing family. Worst of all, the circumstances I will tell you about in chapter seven had set my life on edge. Each day began at seven, and ended about nineteen hours later, if Insomnia allowed me to sleep.

I was climbing the ladder with my nose to the grindstone, my shoulder to the wheel, and my eye on the ball. But like a clumsy juggler, I watched helplessly as things began to hit the ground. Like the dried up pond, I listened hopelessly for the blackbird's song, but none came.

I knew, as you do, that we live in a speeded up world. People headed for Europe used to spend months relaxing on ocean liners. Breathing deeply of the salt air. Savoring novels and visiting friends. Now we can make the same trip in less than a day, and when we get there, we're itching to be first off the plane. Last year the average full-time employee worked 138 hours more than the average worker did twenty years ago. Time-and-motion studies inform us that it takes .014 seconds to open a drawer.

Are we really better off for all these studies? Is the world a better place than it was in the days of the ocean liner?

While trying to program my VCR recently, I thought to myself: Can you believe how much technology is out there that we never asked for? I mean, who said we need Split Screen televisions, Freeze-Frame remotes, and fancy delay features on our dishwashers? Who said we need clocks that make coffee, satellites to find our car keys, and cameras that talk? I love bread makers and microwaves, but what I'd like more than anything right now is to lie down for a full hour without the phone ringing. I've been trying to program my car radio since 1986. I've been reading instruction manuals since before that. This is the Aspirin Age and my head is pounding. If I had the time, I'd sit down and write a letter:

"Dear Guys Who Come Up With More Stuff:

Please stop. We're fine. We have enough RAM in our computers and enough room in our trunks. Our jets go fast enough now. Please work on an invention that slows us down. That brings families together. That cures diseases. I'm still trying to figure out my e-mail."

But the stuff keeps coming. This week I found out that you can now buy a gas-powered blender to use in the backyard. How times have changed since Daniel Boone said, "All you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse, and a good wife."

The experts tell us that each day in America:

• 108,000 people move to a different home and 18,000 to a different state.
• 45,000 new vehicles are purchased.
• 87,000 vehicles are smashed.
• 11 billion e-mails are down-loaded.
• 20,000 people write letters to the president.
• 75 acres of pizza are eaten, as well as 53 million hot dogs and 3 million gallons of ice cream.

Then we jog 17 million miles to burn off all those calories.

The increasing speed at which we live is costing us what we value most. We are crowding each day with more work than it can profitably hold, and it's costing us the undisturbed enjoyment of friends, and sometimes, our health.

Kenneth Greenspan of New York's Presbyterian Hospital claims that stress now contributes to 90% of all diseases. Incredibly, anxiety-reduction may now be the largest single business in the Western World.

In a recent study of 11,500 ministers, three out of four reported severe stress causing "anguish, worry, bewilderment, anger, depression, fear, and alienation."

I meet people all the time who feel this way. Who feel like I did three years ago. For them the birds have stopped singing. The pond has dried up. When will the streams flow again? they wonder. How do we find peace in a noisy culture? they ask.

The other night as spring touched down, I took a walk with my nine-year-old daughter, Rachael. Hand-in-hand we followed a cattle path past blossoming violets and dandelions until the ground fell abruptly away to reveal our favorite pond.

Sure enough, the song birds were back.

Sure enough, the underground streams were flowing once again.

As we tossed small stones into the water, I thought of my own long winter. And the things that had helped me most.

[Introduction] [Chapter 1] [Special Offer]