Slow Down and You Will Improve Both your Performance and Results

Over the years I have noticed a strange anomaly, which at first seemed to me, to be counterintuitive. When people try to work fast, they become overwhelmed and slow, whereas, when they concentrate on being smooth, the results they produce are not only better, but they occur faster too. When people are hurried and pressed, the results they are able to produce are poor, however when people are encouraged to make a crucial philosophical and behavioural shift, where they focused on being smooth rather than fast, the results they managed to produce, were far better and faster to produce.

This phenomenon is visible in many different sporting genres. For example: When a fast bowler in a cricket or baseball team, wants to improve their speed, they actually get slower and less accurate when they over bowl or over throw. The best results are achieved when they let up a little and concentrate on the smoothness of their bowl or throw.

Formula One Motor Racing
The same is true in formula one motor racing. In formula one motor racing, a pit crew of between seven and ten people, carry out minor maintenance, replace tyres and before the rule change, used to refuel a car in less than ten seconds. To maximise the speed at which they could carry out these tasks, they would put the pit crews under pressure, where they would compete against the clock, so that they could become as fast as possible. They would repeat this process over and over again, until they got faster and faster.

Thinking “SMOOTH” improved both their Speed and Performance
They would obviously reach a point, where no matter how much they tried, they could just not even knock one tenth of a second, off their best time. After hearing of this phenomenon, where people actually get faster when they think “SMOOTH”, the pit crew manager suggested to the crew that they no longer focus on being as fast as possible, but instead that they focus on being as smooth as possible. Incredibly the first time they tried this, they knocked three tenths of a second off their best time. Not only were they able to carry out the tasks faster, but when asked how they felt about their performance, they all felt like they had performed better too.

Ron White – Memory Champion
When Ron White, was working towards setting the USA record for memorising a deck of cards, the fastest, he started off trying to go as fast as possible. No matter how hard he tried, he just could not achieve the speed he needed, until he was coached by TC Cumming, who taught him to slow down and to think smooth, instead of fast. After slowing down, Ron White set the record for the fastest time ever for memorising an entire deck of cards.

Making this Work for you
Dare to jump off the hamster wheel of constant busyness, where you are chasing after your own tail, trying to fit a massive daily to-do list into, too few hours each day. Learn the art of first identifying the right activities necessary to achieve the outcomes you want. This will help you to reduce the size of your to-do list, by eliminating all the unnecessary clutter from it, prioritise only the most important activities in designated time slots each day and then focus on completing each prioritised task as smoothly as possible. This crucial philosophical and behavioural shift, will see you eliminate overwhelm from your life and replace it with productivity and incredible results.

Slow down, Focus and Prioritise
Whatever your endeavour, the solution for inviting improved performance into your experience, is not found in trying to speed up and add more workload to your already overloaded schedule, but rather by thinking “SMOOTH” and focusing your energy on completing only those tasks, which will help you to achieve the outcomes you want. . When you commit to make this crucial shift, you will gain many extra productive hours each day.