Speed Kills
Thursday, March 22nd, 2007Modern life comes at us so fast. Sometimes things happen so quickly that I find it hard to keep up.
Did you ever hear that expression from the ‘60’s “Speed Kills”? Back then, they were referring to the dangers of amphetamine addiction. But we can now reclaim the expression for our own use in reference to 360° Success. You don’t have to be addicted to any kind of drugs to be addicted to “speed”.
How often do you feel caught up by the accelerated pace of your day? Like things around you are moving so fast that it all becomes a blur? If you find this happens to you often, you may be addicted to a more modern form of “speed”– the speed of daily existence.
When everything is whizzing by like that, at such a rapid pace, where are you? Are you fully aware of everything around you, or can you feel your perception narrowing as your level of stress and busyness increases?
When that happens to me I tend to lose myself in my circumstances. And when I lose myself in that way, I become much more anxious and much less effective. If I allow things to continue in that way, my decreased effectiveness causes me to make more mistakes, and that makes me more anxious, and even less effective… and the downward spiral continues.
That’s when I know that I need to slow down.
I know, it seems counterintuitive. When you get busy, the pressure seems to demand that you increase and increase your pace just to keep up. Did you ever see the I Love Lucy episode where Lucy & Ethel were working at the chocolate factory? The faster they worked, the sloppier they got in this hilarious sketch. (Click on the link above to watch it now and get a wonderful, insightful look at the way many of us go through our days sometimes…)
When the pressure’s on here are the things I do to stay ahead of the ball.
- Focus on breathing: I focus on breathing deep into my lower abdomen, and that helps me to “Remember Myself”. I discuss this a great deal in my book, 360° Success, if you’d like to understand more about the profound benefits of this.
- Do some conscious movement: Either at my desk or in the bathroom, I just move very slowly and consciously for 5-10 minutes. You’ll be amazed at the results of this exercise.
- Organize & Prioritize: After I clear my head using the techniques above, I write down all the tasks I have to do, and prioritize them. Is there something I could delegate to someone else? Is there something that can wait? It’s important to get a clear picture of what you have to do, instead of the fuzzy picture that is created by stress & anxiety.
- Do one thing at a time: Multi-tasking is a waste of energy. You end up scattered and anxious. Learn to do one thing at a time. Even if you are distracted for a moment, bring your full attention back to what you were doing as soon as you can. You’ll be amazed at how much more you can accomplish if you remember this one thing.
- Take one day to get it all done: When the work load is overwhelming (even with a well-organized list), I will take one day to get everything done, no matter what. This means that you have to lock yourself away, and accomplish what is on the list, in order, one thing at a time. Maybe you’ll work very late that evening, but after you do this, you will feel much, much better.
So, when life gets demanding, don’t speed up. Slow down. You’ll be a lot more productive and a lot happier in the process.
