All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.

-Friedrich Nietzsche

Ever heard of an efficiency expert? I’d like to believe that I am one.

I want the quick tips. Give me the Readers Digest Condensed Version. Show me the research findings. If there is a shortcut to the desired destination, I’m all for it.

I pride myself on being able to observe others. Then, based on their experiences, actions and results, I glean wisdom and devise an efficient and effective plan for my own life.

It’s a massive waste of time and energy to learn everything personally through the school of hard knocks. Doesn’t It just make sense to avoid pain and attract success when possible?

Walking

Over the years, as an efficiency expert, I’ve discovered that interviewing people on their hard-won life lessons pairs beautifully with the continuous and automatic exercise of walking. Multitasking at it’s finest.

So, when I made up my mind to speed walk a marathon, you’d better believe I was going to drag a few unsuspecting friends along with me for the seven-hour experience.

Through conversation and companionship, my fellow walkers provided stories and a sounding board to influence my life’s work. And when I say work, I’m mean all of my work. The physical, spiritual, emotional, mental and relational work…not just the occupational.

Back in the Day

Our lives today are radically different from our ancestors. There was an accepted slower pace to life…before time saving inventions were introduced. Before running water, one of the biggest concerns was having enough of it. Each day, time was set aside when one could safely leave home, family, and work long enough to secure the water necessary for that day’s drinking, cleaning, cooking, crops and animals.

Surely those men, women and children, must have tried to schedule the task so that they could walk and talk with their own trusted confidants. Meeting at a predetermined location, at a predetermined time, they would travel side by side, with empty buckets in hand, to stand and converse at the water source. There they would have taken turns drawing water and insights.

I’d bet that the topics covered included:

Spouses and children

Amusing moments

Hoped for blessings

Mishaps

Illnesses or injuries

Upcoming celebrations

Extended family issues

Hard won insights

Failures in livelihood

Suffering

Weather

Food

Desire for knowledge

Craving of recognition and empathy

Loved one’s successes or tragedies

And--of course--efficiency tips

In the end, there would have been lingering conversations at the point where the path split to take them home. They would have felt an internal tug to hurry back to their waiting lives. But wait. Just another moment longer. To hear and be heard.

Used Still Today

The Walkie Talkies, on one of our many adventures

Hmmm. It sounds oh, so familiar and wonderful. Sounds like the hundreds and hundreds of miles and conversations logged with the “Walkie Talkies”--my own treasured confidants and mentors. Though we started the group all in the name of our physical health, it provides So. Much. More.

Here I will unabashedly admit that most of my brilliant philosophy on life has been plagiarized. Lifted straight from the stories of others.

I told you I was an efficiency expert.

Delighted you’re here,

Roxanne