The Power of Slowing Down

My 11-year-old plays tennis. Due to his love for sports, he tried several of those growing up and stuck to tennis as the sport he wanted to continue to invest his time and efforts in. Now I don't think I am raising a Federer here, but he loves tennis enough that he works hard and looks forward to playing the sport :-). After about a year of taking classes for tennis, my husband and I realized that he had suddenly plateaued. He was not getting worse and he was not improving either. We talked to him about it and at that age, while he accepted that he was not improving, he could not fathom the reason behind his unexpected slowing down either. One evening, as I was driving him back home from his tennis lessons, we started chatting about yet another class where he was unable to focus because "he was having a bad day". He confessed that he still loves tennis and wanted to continue to play; however, he was unable to figure out why he was having "a bad day" for months in a row. Now, anytime such a situation arises, I put on my coach hat to help him figure out a solution by himself. So, after I got his permission, we started chatting to dig deeper into this situation. In a few minutes, we were able to get to the root of the problem which was he was not practicing tennis enough outside of his weekly 90-minute classes and as a result, his confidence in his game had dropped. With him leading the discussion, we came up with a plan to embed tennis more often in his daily routine.

After a few moments of silence, once he felt satisfied with this action plan, I said, not hoping for an 11-year-old to understand, "You know buddy, sometimes slowing down helps you grow faster". His immediate response to this statement was, "Wait, whhhaaattttt?!" I chuckled and tried looking at his expression through the rear-view mirror but it was too dark to clearly see his expressions and body language. I saw his silhouette looking outside the window for a few seconds when I interrupted his train of thoughts and asked, "I don't expect you to understand but I can try to explain what it meant if you like". To which he responded, "I think I understand, Mom. It means slowing down helps you understand the situation better and so it helps us grow faster". Completely shocked by his response, we chatted for a few more minutes about how we often get used to moving fast with the flow of life. This was an incredibly proud mom moment for me as my little man grew some more!

I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities that have come my way in my professional life. While some have truly contributed to my growth in one way or the way, others have taught me life lessons; all of which are very valuable! My horizontal growth happened faster than I had ever imagined and before I knew it, opportunities were coming first and I was running behind, at full speed, to catch up in order to do full justice to the situation later. About 2 years back, a personal setback in my life made me realize the power of slowing down. It took me almost a year of introspection on this personal tragedy, after which I decided to slow down. One of the biggest areas that I had lost focus on was self-care; and my current situation, at the time, demanded self-care more than ever. Hence, I decided that I had to invest time and effort in myself, to better serve others, and in my vertical growth as a person. Because my son was stepping into middle school that same year, being there for him quickly became the topmost priority for me which helped make that decision of slowing down much easier than I anticipated even though it was not easy (but who said the right choices are always easy, right?!).?As a result, I found a job that was best suited to my current professional and personal situation.

Why did I share these stories? If you let me, I would like to encourage you to find power in slowing down because I can promise you that even if it will make you uncomfortable, it is well worth it! Once you are able to get over the initial discomfort, you will find pleasant surprises on the other side. You would want to do it again and this time it will get less uncomfortable. You would end up doing it more often and a mental reminder to slow down, especially when you feel overwhelmed or under stressful circumstances will come naturally to you. You will increase your self-awareness. And most importantly, you will start valuing yourself more because slowing down also helps you dig deeper into your intent (how often we beat ourselves for things that we could have said and done differently? I know I still do it ALL THE TIME!) Ironically, slowing down requires much more and an intentional effort, until it becomes a habit.?

So, as you get ready to step into the new year, leaving 2022 behind, here is my invitation for you to slow down and introspect with these initial questions:

• What went well for YOU in 2022?
• What is YOUR why? (If this seems too big of a question, ask yourself, what is your why for 2023?)
• Did you take care of yourself in 2022? What can you do to make YOURSELF a priority, time and again (I know life happens!), for 2023?
• What can YOU do to ensure and continue to do with respect to eating healthy?
• What can YOU do to ensure and continue to do with respect to being mentally and emotionally healthy?
• Are you holding onto something that you need to let go of? If the time is now, how can you ensure that happens? If the time is not now, how can you ensure you take care of yourself until then?
• Were you able to achieve your professional goals this year? If yes, what did you do to make it happen? If not, what did you learn from this journey?
• What are your professional goals next year? Are your goals aligned with your WHY?
• Are you putting enough time and effort into your personal relationships?

If you have made it thus far, I Thank You for your time. Hope the read was a few minutes well-spent in thinking about yourself and slowing down!