The Day the Heat Breaks
If you’ve ever lived through a Texas summer, you know the sharpness that comes with the hottest days of the year. It’s as if the heat hitting your skin lands with an oppressive weight that makes the walk from your car to the door feel like an endurance event. It’s a slog we Texans all battle through, in fear that it will drain our attention and suck up the energy we’d much rather use elsewhere. This morning, I parked my car at my session room and headed toward the building. It was the first of October, and that edge had finally begun to dampen. The heat wasn’t gone, just the sharpness. Thank you, Earth, for the gift of fall!
As I was waking up my mind today, I read an article by Ryan Holiday about our urge to speed read everything. He made a strong case that doing things slowly actually helps us move faster.
It’s by no means a new idea. I’m sure you can think of a time when someone, maybe while you were learning to ride a bike or drive a car, harped on you with the saying, “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.” We all know the story of the tortoise and the hare… It all swirls around this truth: rushing rarely gets us where we want to go any sooner.
“Slow Down” Doesn’t Mean Stop
When I bring up the idea of slowing down with clients, I can often see the fear set in before I’m able to finish my sentence. The wave of “I won’t be productive… I won’t get as much done…” washes over them as if they hear me asking them to stop everything cold turkey.
For so many people, their value comes from their ability to get things done. It becomes a mirror we hold up to ourselves. So when I say slow down, I don’t mean stop; I mean take your foot off the accelerator just half a percent. Just enough to catch your breath and find enough space to optimize what you’re already doing.
We leaders, executives, and coaches are really good at driving ourselves just half a percent over the edge. It feels normal… heck, oftentimes it feels like what is “required to succeed.” But it means our energy is never optimized, and more often than not, it means our energy is sacrificed.
Where Can You Slow Down?
I recently had a conversation with someone who was looking to manage her energy better. She was feeling beat up and struggling with everything feeling chaotic. We were chatting through her patterns and what she was noticing, and she happened to share that she had been listening to guided meditations at 1.5x speed.
It’s an extreme example, but many of us do things just like this. We rush through a quick and easy lunch at our desk before running to the next thing, we don’t make it outside until the end of the workday, or we pull out our computer for some late-night emails as part of our before-bed unwinding process.
My ask of you is to notice where in your life you’ve ramped up a bit too far, and how you can lighten that load the tiniest amount. Like the Texas heat that has finally started to break, where can you lift that edge off? What can you lift enough to land in a sweet spot, where you’re still moving with purpose but no longer straining against yourself or sacrificing your personal systems?
The heat this morning didn’t just flip off and turn into sweater weather. It just let go of that oppressive edge. A few degrees made my walk easier, gave me back a bit of attention, and supported me as I aimed to keep my energy tank full so I can show up as a transformative coach.
That is what I want for you: half a percent lifted off the accelerator. This week, notice where you are running a little over the edge, and ease up ever so slightly. Notice what happens to your energy and body. Let that feeling be your own first day of fall. 🍂
If this stirred something in you, I’d love to explore this alongside you in an upcoming Coaching Magic YOU-niversity workshop. It’s built for coaches ready to stop letting experience go unexamined and start creating the space for the soul work. I’ll see ya there!
