Slow Is Beautiful

Before my grandfather died, one of the last things he told me was “slow is beautiful.”

He had been sober for 30 years when he passed, and during the early stages of my own recovery, he was one of the people guiding me.

I’ve been thinking about his advice a lot lately. In business and in life, there’s always pressure to move fast. People say “money loves speed.” I’m not so sure I believe that.

For me, it’s always been more effective to go slow and to never move backwards. That’s why I start each day by writing my power list, which is simply five or more tasks I need to complete.

The key is to never move onto the next task until the one in front of me is fully finished. This keeps me from losing momentum or falling into the trap of half-done work.

My pace might be slow, but it’s steady, and it always moves forward.

I have to remind myself of this daily. Even this morning, I felt the urge to multitask and take on six things at once.

NO.

Slow down. Do my morning meditation. Get my thoughts in order. Then focus on the task at hand. Once I finish, I can move on to the next.