The Big Paradox

TThings to do are coming at us from all sides – priorities, phone calls, emails, exercises, crises and on and on.  Many of us think that the best way to get lots of things done is to work faster and faster.  Cut a few corners.  Multitask.  Be on the phone while reading emails.  Drive and talk with customers.  Add more technology.

“The Big Paradox is:  Instead of going faster to get things done, you have to go slower.  Yes, go slow to go fast.”

All that is fine until… you realize that you’re not really getting all the important priorities done.  That you’ve had a nagging employee issue that doesn’t quite get your time and energy to address.  You get the picture.  You may be fooling yourself that you’ve got it all under control.

It means slowing down to think.  To decide what’s really important and what you can ignore.  It means saying ‘no’ to many things until you’ve addressed the team or employee issues or that big customer situation.  I’m not talking about taking hours or days, but taking a focused 5-10 minutes or an hour a week just to think.

  • Take a moment and think about your last week.  How many big priorities got addressed fully?  How many important people in your life did you ignore last week?  If it’s more than 2 big priorities or important people, it’s probably weighing on you and perhaps interrupting your sleep.
  • What’s the cost for you and your organization to not have clarity on your pressing problems?  How much money?  How much stress for you?  For your employees?
  • The result of slowing down to think and determining how to best make the changes your business needs now is that you cut through the fog and suddenly make progress that you’ve been thinking about.  When you take the time to think it through – to go slow – then you get the quick results.

We’re not asking you to trust us yet, but we do want to help.  Contact us for a short conversation to see if Brave Heart Consulting can help you be confident about your next steps.