A few years ago, I left a job where I didn’t have a lot of time to think, plan or create. How do you put out excellent work, or even good work, when all your efforts are reactive? By the time a task or project came my way, it was desperately needed by the client. Of course, they needed it done yesterday—three weeks ago.
Fast forward a few years to my new employer where just a few days ago, my boss uttered these words: “Look, you know how we work here, let’s slow down and get things right. I am not worried about making some arbitrary deadline and sending out sloppy work.”
[Angels Singing: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]
First of all, in all my years of director-level work, I have never been asked to slow down. It was always about chasing the next big shiny toy, without much thought given to why we were chasing it. It’s always been: Speed up. Go faster. Off the cliff. Now climb back up and do it again—even faster.
The reason I took this position was because it was similar work, but with a culture that focused on purpose and asking why. A move is not made unless it fits our purpose and we understand our reason for doing it. If it doesn’t align with our mission, we toss it out. We are encouraged to block out hours of time in our calendars for things like thinking, brainstorming, planning. We start meetings with gratitude. My company takes an approach that’s slow and steady—and, yes, enormously successful, in case you were wondering.
Not only do I need to slow down at work, to find real sanity, this approach needs to carry over into my personal life as well. For me, all efforts to slow down start with my solo travels. I write this from Seattle where I arrived with only two things scheduled and that was done on purpose.
Here, I am spending hoouurrss slowly walking around the city and taking in sights. I spent hoouurrs at one museum alone where I took my time reviewing the legacies of Jimi Hendrix, Pearl Jam and Nirvana. I am taking long glances at Seattle neighborhoods, the water and the mountains. I could do an entire blog post on the eclectic food scene alone.
I travel alone to recharge. And here, I celebrate my glacial pace. No deadlines, no itineraries, no rush. The challenge now, of course, is returning home and trying to maintain that slower vibe.
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