Sipping Mango Tea in TainanTainan, like so many others places I visit, is a bustling city, even at night. I arrive about midnight and travel to the hotel. The roads are crowded and the driver tells me it’s normal for this time of night. By 2:00 AM, I start to relax and try to sleep, hoping to adjust to the 12-hour time change.
The next morning, I travel into Tainan center to wander through small local shops. I look for few gifts to buy. After taking in the sights, sounds and smells, I stop by a teahouse for a cup of tea. One of the offerings is Mango tea. I like mangoes and I like tea, so I try it. It’s good and it’s relaxing.
I decide to sit outside and watch life in the city. The city is busy. People move quickly like the rapids of a river. Motorcycles are everywhere. It looks like someone cloned thousands of Vespas.
I take a sip of tea and open my pack, taking out my Moleskine notebook. I use it to capture my thoughts, ideas, and dreams. As I write about the tea and the city, I remember something on my website. “Today people are being asked to ‘work harder and smarter; do more with less...faster’, to meet the demands of a constantly changing marketplace.”
I had U.S. businesses in mind when I wrote that. Now here I am in Tainan, a long way from home and I see the same thing. I see it in the people in workshops throughout the world. It is a fast-paced world, getting faster every day. I take a sip of tea and reflect on what I’m seeing.
People come late because they’ve been working. They don’t take breaks so that they can return voice or E-mails. They schedule meetings during lunch and skip the meal. They leave early to attend another meeting. And some people do their emails during the workshop! They say they’re comfortable with multi tasking! Well, I’m not! Multi tasking is for computers, not people.
Don’t think that this is limited to the business world. I read about a pastor who had a wireless system installed in the church so that people could do their e-mails or surf the web during the service. I not sure God wants to share our attention with a computer.
I take a sip of tea. Just sitting here is enjoyable. It is refreshing. It gives me time to contemplate. What I see is that we have forgotten the value of periods of contemplation. The world wants me to do things. It wants me active. Contemplation looks like inactivity, like I’m just wasting time.
Periods of contemplation are important to our thinking, creating, and problem solving life. Without it, we jump to solutions. Without it, we miss what’s happening. Without it, we miss possibilities. Without it, we act first solving the apparent problem and retract later causing waste in time and money.
Contemplation is about taking time to look attentively, to ponder thoughtfully, and to consider carefully what’s happening. It’s about thinking first before taking action. Contemplation is our choice. We can choose to take the time. We can schedule it the same way we’d schedule a meeting. We can commit time to contemplate.
So the next time you face with a “situation” start by contemplating what’s happening. Slow down and relax. Be slow to take action. Think first. Brew a cup of tea and then slowly sip it.
Use questions to start your thinking. Here’s a few that you may find helpful.
What is the question I’m trying to answer?
What is happening…what is not happening?
What happens if I don’t solve this problem?
Time to finish my tea. One more sip and then back to the hotel. Tomorrow begins the workshop. After that, I board another plane and travel to Hong Kong, an even busier city. I hope they have Mango tea.
From a teahouse in Tainan, near Kaohsiung, in Taiwan
Charlie