Everywhere we turn these days, we're reminded that we are living during a remarkable and fascinating revolution. The Digital Age seems to have no bounds in its potential to impact our lives. We're wired for everything without the wires. Instant connection without the connection. The opportunities are endless. Sounds great! Sign me up! I've personally found many of technology's new advances to be of great benefit in both my personal and professional lives. In fact, I'll admit I'm spoiled by the ability to communicate, transact, purchase and gain knowledge with a stroke of my fingertips.

Yet within all this opportunity new challenges emerge. Seemingly unlimited connectivity and transactions conducted in a nanosecond usher in a new set of obstacles and considerations. In both the workplace and homeplace increased expectations and productivity seem to be ever-raising the bar of excellence and performance. The speed of living and working has accelerated to heights never before imagined.

I speak as a recovering casualty of this pace. At one point in my life, the speed and fatigue of just trying to keep up blurred my days. Before I realized it, my life and career felt like a bullet train traveling at breakneck speed. My vision for the future was suspended in midair as I used up all my time and energy just surviving the present. Each day I confronted so many urgent demands, I soon had less time and enthusiasm for the real priorites of my life. My inner voice began to ask, "Is this lifestyle really worth it?" I often found myself lamenting, as many of the busy professionals I work with do, "I have to get a life!" I was reminded of the story of the busy executive who, after another long week of extended travel and time away from home and family, returns to find his wife standing on the front porch. Her bags are packed and she's wearing a look that says she's leaving, this time for good. As he rushes to the front door to plead with her what went wrong, he urgently asks, "Is there another man?" In frustration she screams back, "There has to be!"

The undercurrent of human energy today seems to focus on an attempt to blend quality of life with quantity of life. The comment, "There has to be!" represents the plight of many of us who are attempting to discover a lifestyle that provides for success with fulfillment-a lifestyle that reflects our real priorities. Too often the human being gets lost in the human doing. Who we are and what we really care about are waylaid in the acceleration of life. More than ever, people are seeking lifestyle choices that allow them to spend more of their time and energy on the issues of their lives that matter most.

At first thought you may dismiss this thinking as a "Pollyanna approach" or unrealistic. Or perhaps things seem just fine as you accelerate around the personal and professional success track. I can relate to this line of thinking because they were my sentiments only a few years ago. Then, John Gardner's quote woke me up!.

Gardner wrote, "Human beings have always employed an enormous amount of clever devices for running away from themselves. . .We can keep ourselves so busy, fill our lives with so many diversions, stuff our heads with so much knowledge, involve ourselves with so many people and cover so much ground that we never have time to probe the fearful and wonderful world within. . .by middle life, most of us are accomplished fugitives from ourselves."

Ouch! I had become an accomplished fugitive. Not by a chosen plan, rather by an unchosen lifestyle. Often, I was only aware of my life on the surface level. I was primarily concerned with how things appeared on the outside and mostly ignored what was going on inside me. I rarely took time to take stock of who I was as a human being and how my current work impacted the issues most important in my life. I was fairly accomplished in measuring my life on the doing and having level. However, often I failed to take a deeper look at who I would become if I continued the same patterns of living and working.

I began to gain greater understanding of what Gardner was speaking of when he mentioned "the fearful but wonderful world within." My fear resulted from seeing a past that I didn't particularly like or, in some cases, was not particularly proud of. Perhaps that's the feeling referred to in the well-known quote, "The truth will set you free, but first it may make you miserable." The benefit of slowing down to take a deeper look at ourselves is the discovery of a wonderful world of opportunity awaiting those who address the bigger questions.

For me, this wonderful world within began to surface in phases. It started with a new awareness, a broader, expanded point of view. With this enhanced perspective came a newfound clarity, one of those "Oh I see now!" moments. While I believe clarity is rarely crystal clear, a clearer understanding created the initiative I needed to make a change in my life. These epiphanies, served as the foundation for meaningful choices and action, allowing me to create and build the structure in my life that aligned my success with my personal fulfillment. I discovered and continued to discover that unless my foundation for success is based on what's most important in life, the building blocks providing fulfillment will crumble and fall.

My newfound perspective on the pace of life has had its caveats. Slowing down to gain the clarity necessary was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do-much was required of me to make it happen. First was the call for courage. Awareness is important. Clarity is necessary. Courage is critical. Without courage we will find it hard to act on what we really want. Without courage we may become fugitives from a lifestyle that expresses our true talents, values and passions. Perhaps the greatest risk we face is the risk of inaction-failing to act when an inner creative tension urges you to craft a lifestyle that fits who you really are and can become. Unfortunately, many of us wait for the perfect how before we begin to act on a clear why.

Second, there is a call for practice and process. My good friend and mentor, Dick Leider, reminds us in that, "Life is an error-making and error-correcting process." Creating and acting on a life/workstyle that provides you success with fulfillment is an ongoing process of error-making and error-correcting. In some ways it is like a moving target. Just when we begin to have fulfilling answers to our success questions it seems the next set of questions becomes harder and requires more time and energy. As the foundation for success shifts, so must those building block of fulfillment. A fulfilling life must be seen as a lifelong process of questioning, learning and taking action.

So, the next time you find the pace of life leaving you breathless or unfulfilled, remind yourself to slow down and join the anti-fugitive revolution. You deserve to be present at your own life! The intentional quality of the life choices you make will create an aliveness and energy that will positively impact you, your loved ones, and the communities where you live and work.