Sometimes you feel there is no option to slow down and we have to keep running !

I listened to the Ted Talk by Carl Honoré in 2010 and then I read his “In Praise of slowness” and even connected with him on LInkedIn. Well that was a time when LinkedIn was all fancy 😜

I should be honest that my life has been anything but slow. Or I should say slowness was more like getting stuck in traffic than walking on the beach. The slowness that frustrates the hell out of you.

Yet Carl’s approach to slowness has always been an aspirational point in my life. I realized that there is so much more he has written between now and then. I have decided to read all his other books because I too have grown from 2010 to 2024 and I have a few things to share about fastness and slowness and life.

I don’t think it is always slow. There are different parts of life that have a different pace. And we need to find it. Some part of my life only go in top gear. I don’t have an option in my world view. And some just needs to be so slow that I can hear my heart beat.

I believe that we all need to experiment with pace and find what suits us. Whether it is life or work. Choose our pace. stick to the pace. Accelerate or Decelerate as we deem fit. It is our life not anyone else’s. We define the pace 😉

Reduce your need to the minimum. We talk about MVPs, minimum viable product and then counter to it we live in excesses. What is our MVP for life and for work? I have realized that most of the things that give me happiness are pretty cost effective. Cooking at home, economic liquor, A wardrobe from costco or some cost effective outlet, A utility vehicle and not a status simple.

The only thing that I still felt expensive was my Brooks shoes that cost me 160 dollars. An upgrade from my usual 30 bucks feet flowers. I have a bone spur and leg replacements cost a lot more 😊

Most of the fastness can really be a waste, so limit them. Most of the corporate folks have lived more of their life in meaningless meetings than time with their kids and family. Imagine being in a useless meeting when your kid took the first step. I know that is not something we can plan. But be aware what meeting we are in. Don’t be in any meeting that we do not contribute to or the organizer cannot convince us it is needed.

Having your manager in the meeting is not the definition of importance.

It is a sad reality, but Question every meeting you go to. If it is not adding value, tell the organizer it is wasting precious resources and company money,

The question is how many people are Psychologically safe to so 😁

The post was about Slowness. Slowness can be effective, Fast could be error prone and expensive. Value is a balance of Slowness and Fastness. I have seen people running around producing absolutely no value while people walking slowing

Thanks Carl for making slowness part of my life, Your book has been nudging me always to slow down.