Horse Time
Old wisdom sometimes sticks around so long because it’s based on fundamentals to human experience at any time or situation. The three concepts I picked up from talking to a wise camp leader still ring true for me: let’s try to adopt horse time where we focus on the here and now, taking the time it takes for tasks rather than struggling to multi-task in our brilliant but evolved to be single-track brains , or cheapening potentially rich and meaningful experiences by being so completely confined to a strict schedule. If we focus on these things, we’ll be better at making right choices easy and wrong ones harder and that might just lead to us experience a bit more joy every day.
Several years back, I had the great privilege of putting together a story for the Mt. Hood National Forest about a Boys Scout camp hosted on the Forest. Each participant in the camp, were charged with riding a horse from pastureland owned by the Boy Scouts to a property where several dozen horses would spend their winter.
As I interviewed some of the kids involved, I picked up on some key phrases that I don’t think many modern teenagers use, and that made me curious where the kids had picked up on these interesting concepts. Then I interviewed the camp leader. A man who looked and acted the part of his western attire. As I chatted with him, he explained the lessons he tried to instill on the minds and behavior of each participant. I’m sure there are many other life lessons that this wise camp leader teaches the kids involved, but just in the few minutes I spent interacting with him, there were a few concepts that still play a major part of the way I try to live my life since I first heard about them.
The first and perhaps the most basic concept that the kids learn on the morning of first day is the idea of horse time. We forget sometimes how much of our lives is dictated by our preset schedule and not based on how much time we would like to take on some activities or we really need to take on a task. Horse time in a nutshell is time as understood by a horse. A horse doesn’t bother itself worrying about what’s happening next or squeezing something else into a schedule. A horse takes the time it takes and enjoys the sun when it can, the food when it is eating, and the relationship of a trusted rider on its back.
A related concept that the kids talked about and that the camp leader explained to me was a catchy slogan, “If you take the time it takes it takes less time.” I’m a sucker for word play anyway, but the reason why I still try to live by this principle is because of it’s profound effect I’ve seen it play in my life personally. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit how many times in the last few years, I’ve sat down to do something, only to be distracted by email or a phone call that I very easily could have returned later, or the later news feed.
We live in a time of distractions. So much so, that whole companies’ strategies and revenue models are built based on their confidence that they will be able to distract us a certain number of hours per week. But human biology hasn’t adapted fast enough for us to be any good at multi-tasking. Study after study has shown that people do their best work and more of it when they are able to focus on tasks one at a time because it takes us several minutes to remember where we left off and the inspiration that drove us to work on the task in the first place. This is especially true with tasks that require creative or innovative effort. So, that snappy old adage has something for us to learn today.
The last concept I was able to pick us from the camp leader was based around another snappy but profound principle. “Make the right choice easy and the wrong one hard.” If we’re trying to break a bad habit, or start a new healthier one; if we’re trying to accomplish a task that we’re not looking forward to; if we know anything is out of whack in our lives, beyond just trying to have more will power and disciple which is often a struggle of a lifetime, the easiest way to be successful is to just make it easier to do what we really know will lead to long term success.
If we are trying to eat healthier, just removing the unhealthy food from the cupboards can be a better defense than willing ourselves to not eat the cookies. If we know we normally get distracted by our phones, leaving our phones in another room so we can focus is a better way of avoiding distractions than just committing ourselves to do better this time. If we know we want to write a thank you note, leave paper and an envelope with a stamp, and address ready to go on the kitchen table where we can’t avoid seeing it. Most of us catch most of our flights rather than being late and having to scramble to catch a later flight. Why is that? It’s because we set two alarms, leave out our outfit the night before, check the best route to the airport beforehand so we have enough time. That way, on the morning of the flight, things can be easier.
Old wisdom sometimes sticks around so long because it’s based on fundamentals to human experience at any time or situation. The three concepts I picked up from talking to a wise camp leader still ring true for me: let’s try to adopt horse time where we focus on the here and now, taking the time it takes for tasks rather than struggling to multi-task in our brilliant but evolved to be single-track brains , or cheapening potentially rich and meaningful experiences by being so completely confined to a strict schedule. If we focus on these things, we’ll be better at making right choices easy and wrong ones harder and that might just lead to us experience a bit more joy every day.