Slow Down

"Don't mistake activity with achievement." 

"Be quick, but don't hurry."  

- John Wooden  

Ladies and Gentlemen, heed the advice please. You guys, as I talk to you each month, seem to be spinning your wheels as fast as you can.  

Develop different Habits. Less but better. Saying no to some things that are not essential. Slow down to speed up your success. Do the important vs the urgent. Heed the advice. Quit saying to yourself  "things will slow down soon and I'll have time to work on that Rock". Work on the Rock now -the pebbles will get done or they will not matter in the long term. Work on that Rock now and you won't be as busy next time.  

From Steve Chandler:  

You'll feel better if you slow down.  You'll get more done, too.

It doesn't seem like it would be true.  It doesn't seem like slowing down would get that much more done.  But it does.  Every day you do it, you will get more done.  Every day you experiment with slowing down you will understand the truth behind the legend of the tortoise and the hare.  (The turtle won the race.)

The most important element of slowing down is to know that you're always working on the right thing to be working on at any given time.  Business consultant Chet Holmes said that he and his clients accomplish that by making sure each day has only six things on the Must Do list.  That list lets them slow down.

"Why only six things?" says Holmes.  "Because with a bigger list than that, generally you just try to trim the list.  You spend the day trimming the list.  At the end of the day you feel that most of the important things on the list did not get completed.  You just look down and say, 'Oh, I didn't do the most important things.'  There's a bad psychological impact in not finishing your list!  And so only list the six most important things...and then make sure you get them done.  You'll be amazed at how much you've accomplished." 

If I am on the wrong road it doesn't matter how good I get at speeding down the road.  It's the wrong road.

I need to remind myself of this: Slow down and win.  I need to take my sweet, gentle time.  I want this conversation ahead of me to be relaxed and strong so that the relationship I have becomes relaxed and strong.  So all day it helps to tell myself:  Slow down.  Even slower than that.  There you go.