Slowing down has never really been my thing. I tend to move quickly, trying to keep up with the fast pace of life. I walk fast, I eat fast, I do chores fast, and I’m a world class multi-tasker. I often find myself at my desk swirling around in my chair with several tabs open on my desktop and in my mind. It’s like I’m always trying to hurry up and finish something, with the sweet reward of completion and a moment’s rest dangling just out in front of me. My thoughts are always racing at top speed like bullet train with no destination in sight. This can be a good thing in many ways; I tend to get a lot done. I’m learning though, that there are times when slowing down is actually a very good thing and I am trying to get better at it.

Quantity Versus Quality

In my post, The Wisdom of Dziadek, I wrote that my dziadek used the phrase “move slow but work fast”. It seems that I got the work fast part down, but I’m trying to get better at the move slow part. I break life into timelines and schedules, and I tend to feel like I’m failing if I don’t meet those deadlines. I tend to think things like, “On Saturday I’ll complete X, X, and X and then I’ll have time in the evening for X”, or “By June I’ll have X, X, and X done if I work on this schedule”.

While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with planning, it’s also a truth that life will disrupt the best laid plans. Something unexpected comes up that you must deal with, slowing you down. Or maybe your plan didn’t take something into account and must be adjusted. And we all have days when we just don’t feel like doing some things. The other side of the coin is that when you rush through things you tend to miss details, and sometimes those details can change everything. It would seem that there has to be a happy medium where you work steadily, but also remain attentive.

Taking the Time

My mother, Babcia, has always been a hard working person. She spent her whole life working at a job, working at home to raise her children, and trying to be there for the people around her. My dad tended to have a more laid back personality, although he did like to keep to a schedule. My brother and I inherited this work ethic. As I grow older though, I am learning that life at times requires us to slow down and be more deliberate. I find this at work when I’m rushing through a project and see that I’ve missed something that requires my attention.

More often lately, I experience this in my personal life. Maybe it’s the feeling we all have as we age. When we start to understand that our time is limited, we want to make it count. Finishing the things that we start is important. What I believe to be more important though, is the doing of those things… finished or not. Showing up and being present aren’t always easy. Schedules have to be rearranged. Deadlines might have to be extended. Plans will most definitely change. There’s a possibility that we may never even see a finish line. Yet it is in the doing that we learn and are enriched. What we started out to do becomes something entirely different, and maybe what we end up doing… and finishing… isn’t what we’d planned at all.

Here’s to the Journey

Slowing down just a little definitely takes practice. I am living proof of that. I’ve tried, succeeded, and failed at many different ventures along my path. What I’m discovering though is that there is an appreciation to be found when you take the time to notice the details. We may not finish it all today. We may end up some place we never dreamed we’d be. We will finish exactly where we’re meant to though, no matter how quickly or slowly we get there. There is no failure in that.