Slow Down and Enjoy the Scenery

About a month ago someone came up to me at the gym unexpectedly and offered a piece of unsolicited advice that irritated me for some time. The advice?

“Slow down”

Yuck.

Ever since I was a kid I hated when people told me to “slow down”.

To me, it always meant not giving things my best shot and tip-toeing to get them done.

Still to this day I have kept that mentality. If I am going to do something, I am going to do it with a crazy work ethic so that I never fail and have to wonder “boy, what if I gave it my all.” If I failed, I did it with a crazy work ethic, asked all the right questions, dotted the I’s, crossed the T’s and I could sleep in peace knowing I gave it everything in the tank.

Then this guy comes around and tells me to “slow down”. In my head, I told him to kick rocks and for weeks I still couldn’t believe he had told me this.

But like with anything, time tells all.

Time marinates our thoughts to serve us lessons based on them.

I try to never talk about myself and my personal experiences (because that’s what journals are for).... but I had a rough week in Houston while traveling for work. A flat tire on my rental car, roaches in my hotel room, and to top it off a canceled flight at midnight forced me to spend the night at the airport.

I was in such a rush to get home after my last meeting at 4pm that I had scheduled the first flight out of Houston. Houston had other plans for me.

Sitting in an airport overnight really offered me an opportunity to think about everything that went wrong that week.

That’s when I remembered that annoying little piece of unsolicited advice, “Slow down”.

After sitting in an unplugged airport massage chair for the night (which is the opposite of comfort), here’s why it is becoming my favorite piece of advice.

1) Slowing Down Reminds us that Long-Term Success Trumps Short-Term Success Every Time

We all have had a project that we are passionate about that we wanted to succeed to prove to everyone that your way worked. We all have also had people get in the way of that project because “their way is the best way.”

Another yuck.

But with these situations, we have an opportunity to see things through someone else’s lenses to see if their way could actually work with your vision. It is an opportunity to learn something new. An opportunity to add a new tool to your toolkit.

I am not saying to be a doormat and let someone take a crap all over your project. I am saying it is an opportunity to take your relationship with that person to the next level. Work with them on their vision, sacrifice some time, and teach them something new as well. Slowing down can strengthen relationships to create long-term success over time. The power of two people working together is greater than one (if both cooperate).

2) Slowing Down Allows us to Enjoy the Scenery

A fast work ethic doesn’t always mean an effective work ethic. It also doesn’t mean an enjoyable time either. Yeah, I get it, work is not fun all the time. We must sacrifice what we enjoy to achieve different levels of success. That will never go away. I am talking about getting lost in the sacrificed time.

If we’re sacrificing all of our time 24/7 we may miss the scenery of memories and lessons along the way. Balance is something we are always searching for and sometimes it seems nearly impossible. But when we get the opportunity to unplug, we should take it. It can help nourish existing relationships, create memories related to certain time periods, and allows our mind some time to think so we can grow.

We should enjoy the quiet moments when we get them because they speak the loudest to us.

3) Slowing Down Allows us to Learn New Things about Ourselves

When our mind is quieted and we are unplugged it is when we learn the most about ourselves. For example, if we are unplugged with friends and family and enjoying our presence… we realize that we should be taking more time to enjoy their company because time is precious. We’ve all heard someone at some point that is on vacation say “man, we should really do this more often.”

And you should. It’s cliche, but we all have heard the story. “Hard-working man passes away. His final advice to young people is to take more time to enjoy life and the people around you… because he didn’t.” We should not wait until this point in life to finally slow down and realize something new about ourselves.

These are my thoughts on “slowing down” from an airport massage chair at 3 am. Take them or leave them or shoot me a message to talk more about similar experiences.

Thank you for reading :) Ciao for now…

Vinny