Slow Down to Speed Up

As a working husband and father of four active kids, my life is busy. Throw in a couple of other organizations that I work with and sometimes it just gets a bit exhausting. Those times are typically fairly short and then we get back to our normal busy routine. I think most everyone understands what I’m talking about because most of us are very busy. I am always looking for ways to save time and be more efficient. I want to find ways to get the task at hand done faster. I sit in meetings and think “just get to the point. I have other things I need to be doing.” There is even an app for “rescue calls” (and no I don’t have it) to help get you out of a conversation quicker. The pace of life sometimes seems so fast that it is hard to keep up with myself.

Then I remember the teaching of one of my mentors from a few years back. This was the topic of conversation for the day and he quietly said “sometimes you have to slow down to speed up”. Wait… what? I don’t have time to slow down. I can hardly get the work done now. “Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.” What does that even mean and are you on drugs? You never slow down to speed up. You go faster to speed up. Everyone knows that. But, I chose him as a mentor for a reason, so I sat quietly and listened as he continued.

Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up. When we are moving fast, trying to get as much done in the least amount of time, we begin to make mistakes. We get in such a hurry that we don’t take the time to check our work or make sure it is done right the first time. Measure twice, cut once. Of course for me it is usually more like measure twice, cut once… throw that piece away because I got in a hurry and cut it wrong. Measure twice, cut once… again. Being in a hurry often costs more time and money than simply taking the time to do it right the first time.

Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.

His second point was the most important point. I am a very task oriented guy. I like checklists. I love the feeling of scratching a task off of my to do list and moving on to the next task. That sense of accomplishment is refreshing and energizing. I used to have a list of my lists. Now I have consolidated them into one nice spreadsheet. The challenge with being a task oriented person is that I often get so focused on the task that I forget there are actually people around me. Real, live human beings. Slowing down means taking the time to build relationships with people. Life is about relationships, not tasks. I have learned that I can have a conversation via text over a course of several hours. It is quick and convenient to send a text response, but there is very little personal relationship being built. Most of the time, this two hour text “discussion” can be accomplished in two minutes with a simple phone call… and the relationship is built a little stronger. Growing a business, church, or family is all about relationships.

Over the last few weeks I have been working on cleaning out some of my dads boxes of papers. I ran across several pocket calendars he kept. As I went through the calendars, one thing caught my attention. Building relationships was very important to him. Almost every day, he had on his calendar the name of someone to call or go visit. He even had on his calendar the time he spent with us kids. Spending time with people was so important to him that he made sure it was on his calendar and did not get overlooked. I look at my calendar and it is full of tasks that I need to do and places I need to be.

Slow down to speed up. To build a happy life and a successful business or organization is to build real relationships. Not digital relationships, but real life, look me in the eyes relationships.

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