Easing up the Acceleration so I Can Finally Slow Down

Everywhere I turn it seems I keep coming upon versions of the same phrase and here are some of them:

Accelerate your success

Accelerate your sales

Accelerate your solutions

Accelerate your __________ (Fill in the blank)

Quite honestly, all this emphasis on acceleration makes me dizzy, especially when it relates to business. We are in such as constant state of acceleration, from the ways we communicate with one another, to how quickly we expect ideas to come to full fruition. When I read the word, I can't help but think of my beloved late father who was quite practical, specific and to the point in his advice for just about everything, but in particular, about the human tendency to go about our lives in an overly fast and sometimes not so efficient manner. 

Slow down. Take your time.

This has always been the hardest advice for me to follow. I'm kind of wired to think and do things quickly and as the youngest in our family, I was always fast to prove I could do things as well as my older siblings and sometimes moving quickly was a matter of survival. Meals, for instance. If I wasn't fast at the table, the food was quickly inhaled by two older and larger brothers. Walking slowly down a NYC city street could literally have you end up with your face on the sidewalk. 

Problem is, I've retained the habit of moving quickly through things long after the need to do so has disappeared. I haven't lived with my brothers since I was 17 years old, but I still eat my meals as if someone is about to take it off my fork. I walk quickly down the sidewalks of our sleepy little town, even though I haven't lived in NYC for 16 years. 

As well, my need to prove myself by doing things quickly is part of the same luggage I no longer need to carry around. And I'm not the only person to think this way. I recently read a terrific article on the subject entitled "Hurry Up and Wait: 6 Futurists Explain Why Slowness Might be as Important as Speed," by Jennifer Leonard of Good. She begins her article with the following statement:

"According to some of the world’s most prominent futurists, slowness might be as important to the future as speed." 

The article was very compelling, but the phrase that reached out and grabbed me and which has stayed with me as I have begun this process, is the following by John Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design:

“How do we slow down what matters the most and speed up what benefits change and progress? We don’t want to impede progress, but we are seeking reconnection to ourselves, to each other, and with the world.”

I've spent much of this week, when I've not been changing planes, writing my March One Dream a Month project sentence. Actually, I've started with a bunch of adjectives, to help me describe the purpose of the project and the way I want kids, parents, educators and tech-folks to engage with it, as well a page or so of sentences, which will be narrowed down to one or two. 

The challenge for someone like me, who is so used to moving quickly from one thing to another, is to recognize that while I can do things quickly, I don't have to. 

Acceleration is thrilling, like the fantastic thrill of going fast down a roller coaster, or those early days of truly falling in love. But it's not a pace that can be sustained for very long without blowing out all the circuits or burning out. 

I'm in this for the long haul, as long as I'm able to haul it. I've never wanted my 15 minutes of fame. After all, I'm a Capricorn with a tortoise rising and am slowly making my way up my One Dream a Month hill. 

Okay, Dad, I'm finally listening. I get it. 

Slow down. Take your time.