Do you have what’s been termed as ‘hurry-sickness’? John Ortberg suggests that if you have ‘hurry-sickness’ you are haunted by the fear that there are just not enough hours in the day to do what needs to be done. We will read faster, talk faster, and when listening, nod faster to encourage the talker to accelerate. We will find ourselves chafing whenever we have to wait. At a traffic light, if there are two lanes and each contains one car, we will find ourselves guessing – based on the year, make and model of each car – which one will pull away faster. At the supermarket, if we have a choice between two check-out lanes, we find ourselves counting how many people are in each line, and multiplying this number by the number of items in [their shopping trolley]. If we have a really bad case of hurry sickness, then even after we commit to a check-out queue we keep track of the person who would have been me in the other line. If we get through and the other person who would have been me is still waiting we are elated. Ha! We’ve won. But if the alter-me is walking out of the store and we’re still in line, we feel frustrated; depressed. If we can relate to any of those symptoms we have hurry sickness.

Source: John Ortberg. The Life You’ve Always Wanted, 2002, Michigan USA: Zondervan, p.79-80