When I was growing up, my granddad always used to say to me, if a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. One of those statements which at the time as a child growing up, I always thought it was his way of getting me to do a painful job thoroughly that he couldn’t be bothered to do himself or pay for a professional to do. I now realise this phrase has way more depth & meaning than I realised at the time and he in fact was teaching me a really important lesson in life.
So much is written today about the hamster wheel, the grind the rat race that many people find themselves in. This is capitalism, the western way, and the way we’re taught in society that we have to fight over one another on our way to the top. What's so clear to me is most people have taken this ideology way too far, and in many ways are actually harming their ability to progress in the world as they’re not taking the time or care to develop their skills and experiences.
In the past thirty days I made a conscious effort to slow down my pace, which gave me very real & clear benefits, and also a couple of hidden ones I didn’t see coming!
- Quality over quantity; taking the time to do a piece of work or a job properly, means you won’t have to go back and do it again. Not only that, but by doing it with quality, you will start to build your credibility as an expert in what you’re doing, which over time will increase your value in whatever it is you’re doing.
- Slowing down forces you to prioritise. How often do you find yourselves trying to crack through a ‘to do’ list, or hundreds of emails just to say you’ve done them. How meaningful was the work you did that day? When you’re slower, your ability to be conscious at that moment & think rationally about what your biggest priorities are that year, that month, that day means you will only focus on the work that truly counts & truly makes a difference. Once again, adding value to yourself for everyone to see.
- The first hidden one! Listening! We were given two ears and one mouth for a reason. When you slow down to listen, you look people in the eye, you don’t rush away from a conversation, people feel more comfortable in your company and therefore share more with you. This 100% leads to more fulfilled & meaningful relationships, meaning people are much more likely to want to work with you, and share important news / information which you may not have previously had access to.
- Sleeping on it; when you sleep on something, your brain has a very clever way of solving challenges for you overnight. Regardless of this incredible feat of biology, what also happens is you sometimes allow time to take its course. Things have a funny way of working themselves out, and therefore require zero action or time the day after, rather than a heated email or phone call the night before!
Of course, we all live in a world which is time pressured, we all have deadlines, but as I read once ‘Einstein had the same amount of time in a day as we do’. Life is a balance, but for me what I tested in the last 30 days in a world where we’re forced to rush everything created some truly tangible benefits for me and those around me which in turn allowed a much more fruitful & enjoyable month. Of course grandad was right! ;)