Go Slow to Go Fast

Keeping point with the last post on Music Theory, I've got another one to pass along. This one applies to all aspects of life: parenting, exercise, work, relationships, even student loan debt pay-off. I'm sure it's one that many of you have applied in one way or another--realizing it or not.

It sounds simple and easy enough to employ--Go Slow to Go Fast--and it is, if you can resist the finger-tip-access and instant gratification results that we are so accustomed to these days (and love, by the way. No longer need to wait for the next day's solution if you can't figure out 29 across on the crossword puzzle).

In fact, Go Slow to Go Fast is the complete opposite of anything instant. It requires you to accept that results might not appear the next minute, the next hour, the next day, or the next month--but if you plod along, once they do appear, they'll keep coming in ways grander than you could have expected.

Consider this light touch example:

If I owed $20,000 on my student loan (that's five digits)--four digits feels like an eternity away, three is borderline cruelty.

But if I plug away, minimum payments at first then a bit more as pay raises come along, I am all of a sudden paying way more on the principle and less on the interest. The smaller the principal, the further my payment goes. Instead of the 20-years I thought it would take to pay it off, we're looking at eight. (That's with a little extra effort, mind you).

Or this one:

Maybe I just ordered a new computer with lots of hook ups, extra features, and state-of-the-art graphics quality. I resist my impulse to just dive in, throw everything at the wall (figuratively speaking, of course) and see what sticks (thereby breaking something or even worse, giving up and never realizing the darn things' full potential). Or, I pay attention to the manual and do as it says. I might not realize its full potential right away (there's always Video Professor, right?) but at least I've positioned myself for the possibility. And what is more exciting than possibility?

If I put in the effort on the front end, then the work on the back end ought to go a lot more smoothly and a lot more...quickly.

These examples scratch the surface of Go Slow to Go Fast potential--it's really effective with the deeper aspects of life: a new relationship, house buying, weight loosing, job seeking, athletic training, soul searching, product launching, and the list goes on.

Going Slow to Go Fast doesn't require a whole lot of paper and pen planning (although that never hurts) it just requires a bit of consciousness, restraint, and patience. In many cases, it's about changing behaviors --even just a little behavior at first (saying hello to someone even if it looks like the last thing they want to hear)--and with the confidence or success that you build from that little change, moving on to other behaviors (or bigger ones) becomes almost fun.

Before you know it, small steps turn into bigger steps, bigger steps into strides.