I work with TMD – Too Much Data all the time. I have not watched TV for more then a year: too much data per second. My work means – processing data, so adding up volume of data to operate off-work is – TMD by default.
I train hours per week others call “it-s-like-having-a-second-job”
I loooooooooovvve communicating with my close friends or with my not-so-close fellow athletes.
but…
Slowing down is a mandatory built-in mechanism of operating my schedule.
At work or in training or overall. I have rest days and easier weeks. Life does not always follow my schedule, life – just happens. And there comes a moment when I have to slow down (like – now!). Or – when I deliberately slow down. I cut off threads, shut down communication channels. It’s a habit taken from times when keeping lent was routine 6 months per year here and there.
A Lent before Easter. I had taken some time out of most of my social networks communication – and enjoyed the simplicity of it.
This is not the life of simplicity but the life of multiplicity that the wise men warn us of.
It leads not to unification but to fragmentation. It does not bring grace; it destroys the soul.
Total retirement is not possible. I cannot shed my responsibilities.
I cannot permanently inhabit a desert island.
I cannot be a nun in the midst of family life. I would not want to be.
The solution for me, surely, is neither in total renunciation of the world, nor in total acceptance of it.
I must find a balance somewhere, or an alternating rhythm between these two extremes;
a swinging of the pendulum between solitude and communion, between retreat and return.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Gift from the Sea
Withdrawn and still,observing and taking time to respond. In “A World That Can’t Stop Talking” (referring to the A World That Can’t Stop Talking ) taking time for long talks with a friend in a cafe, taking time at all – is not that popular.
“I don’t have time” is an adult equivalent of “my dog eaten my homework”. People are capable to make priorities on what is important. If they don’t have time – that means somehow it’s important for them not to have it.
I gave it a try: to prioritize high cadence at many levels for certain period of my life. All I got out of several weeks of high speed, all-out, tuned-in, dialed-up pace in work combined with (it so happened) higher volume of training and lack of rest – is knowledge on that I can run myself to the ground without noticing any signs of it.
I know I can.
– “You overtrain”, – if I had a penny every time I hear this
I don’t overtrain – I don’t rest enough for the volume of everything I want to do in life all together.
The more precious moments of slowing down are.
“The key here is to stay s-l-o-w-e-d d-o-w-n.
The time you spend in deliberate assessment will pay off as you resume navigating forward. I’ve worked with a lot of executives who are dealing with a crisis and the resultant task overload, and I have seen many a business leader pull out of nosedive by slowing things down for a couple of hurs or even a couple of days to get it right”
from Fearless Leadership by Carey Lohrentz
– I can take this advice from a lady operating F-14.
In 2010 HBR publishes The Acceleration Trap – it talks about the “the habit of constant change” and “operating under constant overload” – something I can relate to in work, as I see the signs of it around. It also talks about ability to stand the ground and pause.
Zenhabits on slowing down: Slow Down … to Enjoy Life By Leo Babauta
“Take courage to REST” – said my coach
Simple mantras like this, simplicity, helps me to navigate with clear mind, calm and balanced, staying in peace in the eye of any storm.
Slowing down in order to built up speed later on.
As I learn how to slow down gliding in water swimming – I realize that this smooth easier glide is what actually helps to speed up
