time & time again

It's not mere serendipity that two unrelated books I happen to be reading at the same time touch on the issue of - time.

Am must getting started on Creative Time (2012), by Marney K. Makridakisn, while I first read The Magic Lamp (1998) back in 2002 & again in 2013.  Since I can't continue with Marney's book until after completing the first creativity assignment, decided to dip back - again - into Keith Ellis' classic.  Completely forgetting its section on our relationship to...  drum roll, please - - TIME.

Funny thing is, I don't remember the section at all from my previous readings. This time, it practically leapt off the page, with it's consideration of vertical (our relatioship to the 24 hours that make up a day) & horizontal time.  Vertical time is judgmental, horizontal time is mellow.  Vertical time is what triggers our sense of not doing something fast enough, horizontal time says to just keep going & it will get done.  

Vertical time is what discourages us, makes us throw in the towel before we complete a goal "because it is taking too long."  Horizontal time tells us we just miscalculated how long it would take;  recalibrate & keep on moving until it's finished.

Years & years ago, when I was going through a super rough patch following Mom's death, the withdrawal of my birth family & the shocking loss of my job ~AND~ it was taking months to regain my balance, my sense of vertical time is what made me fall apart with dark self-recrimination, slamming myself by wailing to John, "Why aren't you upset at how long this is taking, at the months & months I haven't been bringing in any money.  It's taking SO long!"  And it was horizontal time that inspired John's calm, loving response - "It's taking as long as it takes."  

Can remember - can actually feel my body's response - when he said that.  Everything about me that was tense & full of despair immediately relaxed & regained a sense of hope.  I was gauging my recovery in tick tock tick tock, while John was using heart beats.  

Tonight, I spent a lot longer clearing out closets than expected.  Could feel my chest tightening, my blood pressure rising, a dark cloud wrapping around my heart.  Felt it & recognized vertical time laying bare my lack.  As in a limited, narrow, constricted sense of time, a sense that encourages despair & giving up.  

Like a kindly genie, horizontal time materialized & rescued me!  Instead of seeing all that I didn't get done in the two hours I'd set aside, saw all that had been accomplished & knew that there will be plenty of time tomorrow & the next day & the next to get the Front Room looking as nice as the Computer Studio did (before working on the next-door room threw it into temporary chaos).  Horizontal time clapped me on the back & congratulated my follow through.  

Regular, consistent, ordinary effort put into wise day-after-day action is far more likely to yield exceptional results than extraordinary efforts in isolated spurts of time.  Horizontal time might feel stodgy, but - like the turtle - it's more likely than vertical to get a job done & done well.  Vertical - the hare.  Horizontal - the turtle.   Slow & steady - quintessentially horizontal!

 

Credits:

entrepreneur.com

keithellis.com

en.walls321.com
leaderonomics.com