Slow down to speed up!
This topic is appropriate because my favorite racing series, NASCAR, just finished racing in Martinsville, VA this past weekend. This track is ideal for applying this principle, slow down to speed up. The reason for this is that if you drive the car too much, you won’t get the most traction and won’t be able to accelerate out of the corner as quickly. Instead of driving the car too much into the corner, by slowing down a bit you can maintain your momentum through the corner and accelerate out. By going a bit slower, your overall lap times improve.
This might be one of the hardest concepts I’ve ever had to learn. My personality wants it all right now. I am the king of instant gratification. When I see something that I think looks good, I go full bull. In business, this has led me to invest without doing proper research. In relationships, I have made life-changing decisions without really getting to know the person. Because I charged, I lost traction and skidded into a wall. If I had slowed down and thought about what I was doing, I would have been able to stay in control, make informed decisions, and avoid problems for myself and those around me. By slowing down I would never have lost momentum in my life and even though there was a turn to be made, I could have easily sped it up.
Yesterday we took a step back and realistically calculated the amount of time we can spend on our goal each day. We also asked ourselves how long we thought it would take us to reach our goal, committing ourselves to it. Today I ask you to organize. If you’ve decided to spend an hour each day working on your goal, block that time out of each and every day. Put it in your planner. Put this on your calendar. Remember this commitment! Remember, if you can’t keep commitments to yourself, who can you keep them to?
A personal goal was a healthier lifestyle. Now I go to the gym 6 days a week. I don’t feel guilty that it affects any other aspect of my life because it is the commitment I have made to myself. If your only goal is better health, do something similar. Block out a daily amount of time to exercise or go for a walk. Daily! Whatever step you have to take on a daily basis to get closer to your goal, do it. Now put this time commitment in your journal!