NOT "Everything, Everywhere All at Once", But "Thank You for Being Late"
Growing up, I have always wanted to be a martial artist like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li and even Michelle Yeoh. These are actors and actress are actual martial art proponents and had trained consistently for years in their roles.
Besides being popular, they had encouraged me to be in optimum physical and mental fitness in my life and career. My admiration includes operatives like spies, SWAT team and even professional hitmen for their mental toughness, alertness and agility in quickly responding to uncertain and volatile environments.
Being disciplined means having enough self-control and consistency to do what needs to be done, even when the days are difficult or when we do not feel like doing anything at all. However, it was only later in life that I realized that I also need to be disciplined to rest, relax and rejuvenate when needed to function at my best.
After all, life is but a marathon than a sprint. The more we burn the candles at both ends, the more we shall be burnt or snuffed out.
We do not need to accomplish everything all at once in a day, like the movie, "Everything, Everywhere All at Once", both directed and produced by "the Daniels" (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert). We definitely do not need to be like Evelyn Wang too (starring Datuk Michelle Yeoh).
In this movie, Evelyn Wang was a stressed Chinese-American laundromat owner who seemed perpetually harried and forever in a hurry (pun intended), as she struggled with several life issues simultaneously. She needs to settle her tax issues with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
As if it is not enough, she also needs to mend her marriage with her husband, Waymond and "subdue" her wayward daughter, Joy (pun intended). Everything is chaotic in her world until she discovered her ability to multitask and "verse-jump" in multiverses (pun intended).
This is something most of us can identify with especially when we are living in an "Age of Acceleration", according to Thomas Friedman's book, "Thank You for Being Late".
I am fortunate to hold and read this book because this was the last book in stock at the Book Xcess bookstore in Amcorp Mall that I had purchased it from. For the uninitiated yet inquisitive, this book is no endorsement of tardiness. In fact, it is the anti-thesis of the movie, "Everything, Everywhere All at Once".
This book is an invitation and a plea for us to take a slice of time from our busy lives to pause, observe, reflect and think deeply whenever there is unscheduled tardiness by others. Moments like these are oases of humanity, where we pause our daily hustles to reconnect with the core of what makes us human.
According to Thomas Friedman, this "Age of Acceleration" we are living in happens when major forces like technology, globalization/markets and climate changes/environment converge at a singular timeline very much like how multiverses tend to "compress" in Evelyn Wang's life in the movie "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once".
The main accelerator of our present age is still technology. We are now seeing rapid advances in computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and digital connectivity (which are driven partly by Moore’s Law).
Due to technological advances, globalization occurs at unprecedented speed in global major markets as information, goods, and services move faster than ever. Very often too, deregulation also adversely influenced climate changes and our environment.
These forces interact and reshape jobs, politics, culture, and daily life at breakneck speed that cause effects such as information overload, choice overload and time compression to name a few. So, we are drowned in endless information, paralyzed by a flood of choices, and raced against ever-shrinking hours as we move through each day, hurried in our actions and harried in our minds.
Therefore, the way forward for us is to learn how to slow down whenever possible to "smell the roses" (as cliched as it is). Yes, we shall always have long to-do lists of unfinished goals to accomplish, but if we learn to slow down, listen to our bodies and enjoy the process, we shall eventually finish every task in a much more relaxed and enjoyable manner.
"The journey IS the destination."