Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.~ Navy SEALsBelow are three examples of slowing down to be effectiv [View online]( [Coach Tony]( Coach Tony [@tonystubblebine]( Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
~ Navy SEALs
Below are three examples of slowing down to be effective. Go at the speed it takes to get what you wantâââslow/fast has nothing to do with it.
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#1. Slow reading.
The speed reading movement popularized a not-very-helpful idea that the point of reading is to recall facts. I disagree. The point of reading is to integrate ideas into who you are.Â
That led me to this article that connects the dots between the brain science of learning and the optimal strategy for learning: [Slow-Reading is the New Deep Learning]( by [David Handel, MD](:
By reading slowly, you allow for the requisite time to employ your central executive. You need to focus your attention, utilize the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad. New ideas, concepts and facts youâre encountering must be moved into the episodic buffer where you can play with and manipulate them. And the best kind of manipulation you can employ with your working memory is metacognition.
I loved that article and want to highlight my position on this topic: being a better reader is the absolute most underappreciated topic in all of self-improvement. Other topics get the press, but this under-covered topic has a lot of meat.
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#2. Slow writing.
Continuing my test of [750 Words](, I explained to Buster (the developer) my first experience of freewriting.Â
The first 150 words were easy. Getting to 600 words was a slog. Then a dam broke and something important spilled out of me. I was actually disappointed when I hit 750 words because I didnât want to stop writing.Â
Busterâs response is that this is a common experience and I think that points to the genius of the Morning Pages concept that 750 Words references. Most people need to write that much to get past all of their surface-level thoughts. 500 words arenât enough.Â
So for me, journaling 750 words takes me about 19 minutes. Thatâs more time than I want, but itâs the time that is required to be effective.Â
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#3. Slow self-talk.
The strategy for adjusting your self-talk is to learn to notice your normal talk (often quite negative) and then pause and rewrite some of it with more helpful phrases. Slow your self-talk down until itâs helpful. Here are some example replacement phrases:
I donât know if this will work out, but I will always put in my best effort, and get the best result I can.
Life is short and precious, and I want to make the most of it. I use my time consciously and powerfully.
I am strong enough to turn towards things that make me feel uncertain, afraid, overwhelmed, and to use them as a teacher.
I donât know if Iâll be good at this, but Iâm going to act as if I will, and have unreasonable confidence.
I donât know what others will think, but I wonât know if this was worthwhile until I try.Â
They might be frustrating, but I wonât be at their mercy.
I value myself and acknowledge my light.
Source: [Powerful Training for the Mind]( on the ZenHabits blog.
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Aside: achieving differentiation.
I donât write a lot of business strategy in this newsletter, although I certainly have plenty filed away. But the note above about 750 words being effective, where 500 words of journaling would be ineffective, got me thinking about a talk from Geoffrey Moore (of Crossing the Chasm). [Hereâs the main clip](.
He is talking about how to efficiently allocate money to create competitive differentiation. The core point is that many companies start on a differentiating feature that just doesnât go far enough. When that happens, every dollar they spent has been wasted. But just as likely, a company spends enough to create differentiation, falls in love with their success, and keeps investing in that same feature. For them, there is a moment where theyâve achieved their goal of differentiation and then every dollar spent afterward is a waste.Â
Thatâs very similar to freewriting. Write too little and youâve wasted your time. I donât actually know what would happen if you wrote âtoo much.â Maybe one of you will test it: take two hours and see how many words you can free write. If you do, definitely let me know.
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Open Opportunities:
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