Tag Archives: business

How “quick” are we moving?

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It recently occurred to me how often I use the work “quick” in my everyday language. Here are some examples, do they sound familiar to you, too?

“Let me hop in the shower quick.”

“Let me grab a quick snack.”

“After a quick breakfast/lunch/dinner…”

“I’m headed to the gym quick.”

“Let’s have a quick meeting.”

“I need a quick nap.”

“Sure, I can go for a quick walk.”

“I only have time for a quick conversation.”

“Let’s take a quick break.”

“Let me finish this homework quick.”

“I have to call home quick.”

“Let’s make a quick trip to the store.”

*Note: I understand “quickly” is the proper usage in some of these examples, but I typed them as I’ve used them or have heard them used.

Maybe it’s just me, but I can only remember a few times in the past month or two where I wasn’t doing something quickly. Especially when it comes to meals, I’m rather confused as to why it always needs to be a “quick breakfast,” “quick lunch,” or “quick dinner”. A meal is an unbelievable blessing, to rush through it just doesn’t seem right to me.

Here are some other questions I’m wrestling with:

1) Am I actually doing things “quickly” or do I just say so to justify allotting time for them? For example, I don’t feel bad taking a nap if it’s a quick nap. But heavens no, not a long nap! A quick shower, yes! But a long shower, no! There are too many things to do!

2) Does using the word “quick” cause us to move quickly, or do we use the word because we’re already moving quickly? Is it just an idealistic reminder of how we should be moving? If so, why should we be moving at this rate?

3) Do we use this word to bolster our own importance, communicating to people, “Look how busy I am, I have to do everything quickly!”

The more I use this word (quick or quickly), the more I wonder if the pace of my life is out of balance. If everything is done in a hurry, what am I really savoring? What am I really enjoying? For a more in-depth discussion on pace of life, check out this previous post.

Today I want to challenge you to think about the pace of your daily activities, and how that pace affects your life. Personally, I don’t want to take “quick showers,” “quick naps,” or eat “quick meals” any more. If I’m going to do something, I want to enjoy it, and I want to do it at the pace of maximum benefit. Maybe sometimes that pace will be “quick”, but I have a feeling that many times it will not be.

Nature doesn’t rush, God doesn’t rush, and I’d like to coordinate my timing to match that of the powers that created me.

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Pace of life

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In the past few days I’ve been contemplating the pace of life.

What is the ideal pace of life? Does an ideal pace even exist? If so, is it fast, slow, or maybe a mixture between the two? None of the above? Does it vary for each person?

I feel like a strong case could be made for all of the options, and I’m not completely sure of the answer. What I’d like to do now is just present the different sides as I view them, and maybe my perspective will help you develop your perspective. I do feel that to some extent, everyone has a different ideal pace. It will likely depend on the values, goals, aspirations, and circumstances of each individual person. In any event, here are some of my thoughts on the pros and cons of each one.

1. Life in the fast lane! What is it that makes a rapid-paced life so appealing? Well, getting a lot of things done is a good start; accomplishing goals left and right doesn’t leave much time for lollygagging around. Plus, having a sense of urgency is crucial to time management. Otherwise, tasks may end up taking longer than expected and overflow into time for other tasks (we’ve all written a paper in five hours that could’ve been written in two if we just worked diligently). But with a sense of urgency comes less relaxation and possibly more stress.

I like to do lots of things (clubs, sports, friends, school, church, etc.) and it seems like having a hurried pace is a necessary evil sometimes. Eating quick meals, running out the door, and coming home late every night are accepted as trade-offs for a jam-packed (but enjoyable) schedule.

There are so many opportunities available to us in life, and spreading ourselves thin may be exhausting at times but very fulfilling at others. For example, I am fortunate enough to attend a college with opportunities for just about anything imaginable. I take advantage of this by active participation in just about a dozen different extracurricular activities. But this means I’m always busy. But what’s the cost of not taking those opportunities? Less social interaction, skill development, sense of community, fun, return on college investment, and so on. When looking at it that way, maybe being constantly busy isn’t so bad after all.

But on the other hand…

2. Life in the slow lane can be good too! It’s important to savor and enjoy life, which often requires taking the foot off the gas. After all, the scenery becomes blurry when we’re cruising at 100+ mph. That’s why nature walks are so highly suggested in the health and wellness field. A walk requires you to move slowly, and by moving slowly you can release tension from your mind and body and admire nature’s beauty. This is conducive to self-reflection and other thoughts that a “busy-every-second-of-the-day” schedule might not allow.

In recent books I’ve read, Deepak Chopra and Norman Vincent Peale discuss pace as well. Chopra, in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, talks about practicing silence, of slowing down our minds and not speaking. He says “Stillness is the first requirement for manifesting your desires, because in stillness lies your connection to the field of pure potentiality that can orchestrate an infinity of details for you.” Dr. Peale, in The Power of Positive Thinking talks about how accelerated our lives have become and how people are destroying their physical and mental bodies because of it. He says “The pace of modern life must be reduced if we are not to suffer profoundly from its debilitating overstimulation and super-excitement.”

I recently had a conversation with someone for three hours (face to face!). It’s shameful to admit that even though I had no urgent work to attend to, I still felt a bit uneasy at times. In the hurried pace of my life, every second of every day being directed at accomplishing some goal, I wasn’t used to slowing down and talking with someone for that long. It’s just not a common occurrence any more, not with emails, Facebook, texting, and phone calls becoming the norm. But why not? Why not talk to someone for three hours? Why not relax and focus on one individual for a bit? The texts will be there when we get back. But I think this demonstrates the effects of too much fast-pace in our lives. If we move too fast all of the time, we may actually un-learn how to slow down. And by forgetting how to slow down, we miss all of the profound benefits of it.

3. Ultimately, I think pace of life comes down to balance. I know that sounds like a cliche answer, but I think that in general, life is about balance (balanced diet, balanced budget, balanced team, balanced schedule – all of which are better than the unbalanced versions). If our pace of life is always in high gear, pedal to the metal, eventually we will burn out. But if we move too slowly, opportunities may pass us by and go to those moving at a swifter pace. However, and this is an incredibly important distinction to make, a slow pace does not mean becoming lazy!! You can have a slow pace and still work twenty hours a day. The turtle (as opposed to the hare) wasn’t lazy; he just moved slowly. Now, I wouldn’t suggest this for Olympic sprinters. But, even though sprinters are in high gear when it comes to running, they don’t have to be in high gear with their families and friends, or with their jobs. It’s about balance.

As stated, this topic has been on my mind for some time now. Unfortunately, I don’t know the pace of life that suits you best, but I do think that to some extent, it will be balanced. And I hope that this encourages you to think about your own life-pace, and not just accept it “as is”. You do, after all, have control over it and the power to change it.

Some questions to ponder: When is high-gear appropriate in your life? When is slowing down appropriate? What is the “default” pace at which your life operates, and is that contributing or detracting from the quality of your life? What pace do you need to have to live the life you want? To fulfill your dreams?

“Have fun in your command. Don’t always run at a breakneck pace. Take leave when you’ve earned it: Spend time with your families.” ~Colin Powell

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Study the leaders

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From all the authors and speakers I’ve heard discuss success, this is perhaps the single best piece of advice I’ve come across: study the leaders. Especially if you want to be the best at what you do, or even just become better at what you do, I think this is essential.

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Imagine having a conversation with someone who tells you they want to be the best quarterback of all-time. You might respond to this ambitious goal by saying “Wow, so you mean even better than Joe Montana?” Now, let’s pretend this person looks at you with a confused face and asks, “Who? I haven’t heard of that guy.”

You would be completely flabbergasted. You might respond by saying, “Well, surely you at least know who Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Drew Brees are.” Once again, let’s pretend this person becomes incredibly confused and asks, “Who?!”

At this point, you might not even know what to say. You would probably ask yourself, “How can this person want to be the best quarterback of all-time yet not know who the best quarterbacks of the past or even the present are?” It wouldn’t make sense.

Naturally, anybody who wants to be a great quarterback knows all the other great quarterbacks. He knows who they are, what team they play for, what their style is, what their philosophy is, what their training regimen is, and so on. Most people would agree that an aspiring quarterback should know these things.

Now, let’s generalize this example. I believe that any aspiring individual should know these things as well. An aspiring accountant should know all the “top dogs” in accounting, what books they’ve written, schools they attended, projects they’re involved with, and so on. An aspiring author should know all the top authors, the best-sellers, what their books are about, and what their styles are. An aspiring teacher should know the leading educators, educational innovators, and the top school systems.

Awareness of these things, derived from studying the leaders, yields several great benefits:

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First, we are inundated with great ideas and advice. Leaders are leaders for a reason: either they are incredibly smart, savvy, innovative, creative, hard-working, charismatic, or visionary. Even if we can’t converse with these leaders directly, becoming familiar with them and their teachings/ideas will be worth its weight in gold. A Chinese proverb says, “A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.” In other words, find the people with the answers and just ask them the right questions.

Second, we can shorten the learning curve. Most leaders in their fields, whether it be health, fitness, speaking, teaching, accounting, management, leadership, sports, chemistry, etc., have written books and/or speak on the subject. Many times they point out exactly what originally kept them from becoming a leader and what propelled them to later become a leader. Knowing this can keep us from making the same mistakes, or, can aid us in making the same good decisions.

Third, we have an idea of what’s possible, even if we never plan to duplicate it. When Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile for the first time in history, 16 other people broke the same barrier within 3.5 years. For a while, it wasn’t thought possible, but once it “became” possible, all of a sudden people could do it. By knowing what the leaders are up to and what they’re accomplishing, it makes us aware of the possibilities, which we can then adapt, surpass, or just keep in mind as we forge our own paths.

I encourage everyone to look up and study at least 5 leaders in whichever field they are most interested. Arrive at the point where you could answer the question “Who are the biggest names in that field?” with a list of people in just a few seconds. Depending on who you look up, you could even try to get in contact with them, and perhaps they’ll respond! This will undoubtedly provide many benefits and bring you closer to becoming a leader yourself!

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A quote from Larry Winget, the Pitbull of Personal Development, sums up this post pretty well: “Do you think Target and KMart don’t know what Walmart does? Do you think US Air doesn’t know what Southwest is doing? People who are serious about the business they are in study the other leaders in the business.”

Study away :)

Photo by barunpatro