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Slow Down In Order to Speed Up

Written by: Elizabeth Mullen

Article Overview: What if you could use rest as an active element in creating success? Or slow down and actually get more accomplished in your life?

Slow Down In Order to Speed Up

What if you could use rest as an active element in creating success? Or slow down and actually get more accomplished in your life?
Tri-athelete and personal trainer Greg Angel shares this tip from successful athletes: slowing down for a period in one's training is the only way to increase speed without injury. This is why one is expected to rest more right before an athletic event, not train harder-- it rests the body that it might renew at a higher level. In this way, resting is actually a key element in any successful training program.

This principal also applies in our daily lives, and is a key to success that all super-achievers intuitively understand. So, how can you use it to have more of what you want in life?

When we slow down the following highly beneficial things happen:

1) Slowing down causes us to perfect our form.
In athletics this translates into better body posture, breathing, and biomechanical movement. In other areas of life, it translates into mastery of fundamentals, such as communication, relationships, and sense of personal mission.

2) Slowing down can increase aerobic fitness.
"Trotting" increases stamina and explodes energy-- very different from sprinting which exhausts muscles. In other areas of our life, "trotting" can increase longevity by deflecting burnout and preventing stress. It is also possible to carry on a conversation while moving more slowly (see number one above!)

3) When we slow down, our effort is minimized while our enjoyment is magnified.
This is very good for re-associating us with the pleasure of our chosen activity, and compelling us effortlessly to stay the course...

Besides all the reasons why slowing down is beneficial, on a practical level-- it is downright necessary. No matter what we are doing, as humans we must rest regularly... or else something in our lives will happen to ensure that we do. In athletics this is almost always injury; in other areas it may be illness, crisis or surprise.

Ask yourself this: how many extraordinarily successful folks do you know that take down-time for themselves to regroup? Probably all of them. The secret here is to know what those folks do: Take the time for yourself BEFORE your next leap, because you'll burnout if you decide to do it afterward. Use rest like the key to your success... and push on with a cushion!!

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Related Forum Posts
Re: In Praise of Slow by Carl Honore - Thanks for sharing GT - very interesting! According to Amazon Kindle, the two most highlighted passages from the book are: [quote:1tn0ii6a]Slow philosophy can be summed up in a single word: balance. Be fast when it makes sense to be fast, and be slow when slowness is called for. Seek to live at what musicians call the tempo giusto—the right speed.[/quote:1tn0ii6a] [quote:1tn0ii6a]Slow is the opposite: calm, careful, receptive, still, intuitive, unhurried, patient, reflective, quality-over-quantity.[/quote:1tn0ii6a]
Re: SES Toronto Next Week - In that case, how about the following? Track: Get Me Up to Speed * State of Search Marketing in Canada Track: Practical & Actionable * Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions Track: Advanced * User Search Behavior * Social Media Success * Web 2.0 & Search Engines * Giving Credit Where It’s Due: Which Campaign Sold What?
Re: Meet the NEW Twitter.com - Hey GT, I wasn't aware of this at all. Looks like a good change is coming. The new interface looks much better than the current one, and I like the new features that will be included. Speed is definitely an issue for many sites, and Twitter especially. The current site is somewhat slow at times or doesn't load for me at all which requires having to hit the "refresh" button (sometimes multiple times). Sometimes ReTweeting doesn't work, etc. There's issues that will have to be addressed, and hopefully with the new site rolling out they can find a way to speed things up and make it efficient.
Re: Do bigger monitors save time? - Hi Kevin, Thanks for the welcome! I would agree that two 17's would work well but really, any size would work. I'd be careful in going after the larger monitors that are traditional heights but are really wide, unless you have the desk space for it. Choose your monitors carefully as well to ensure that you try to find ones that have a small frame outside of the actual monitor screen. That way, when you put them together, the screens look a little more uniform. Last tip for either multiple monitors or one large one... Speed your mouse motion up. If you don't, you'll spend forever scrolling from one screen to another or across a larger screen. It'll take a bit to get used to at first but after a few days, using a mouse with regular motion will seem painstakingly slow!
Re: Do bigger monitors save time? - [quote="Raye":k99n31np]Hi Kevin, Thanks for the welcome! I would agree that two 17's would work well but really, any size would work. I'd be careful in going after the larger monitors that are traditional heights but are really wide, unless you have the desk space for it. Choose your monitors carefully as well to ensure that you try to find ones that have a small frame outside of the actual monitor screen. That way, when you put them together, the screens look a little more uniform. Last tip for either multiple monitors or one large one... Speed your mouse motion up. If you don't, you'll spend forever scrolling from one screen to another or across a larger screen. It'll take a bit to get used to at first but after a few days, using a mouse with regular motion will seem painstakingly slow![/quote:k99n31np] Hi Raye, Thanks for the tips! But if choosing monitors with smaller frames outside of the actual screen space is important when using 2 monitors...then wouldn't using a laptop and a secondary monitor be a bad idea? And are there any current monitor brands and models you would recommend? For instance, for the same price, should someone go for a slightly larger screen or a smaller one with Dell's "Ultrasharp" feature?


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