"I didn't slow down because I'm naturally serene. I slowed down because pain became a teacher I couldn't ignore. My body started telling the truth faster than my calendar did. In that space, I noticed how much of my life ran on hurry, not purpose. Hurry gave me little hits of progress (another message, another meeting), but it starved the parts that make a life: attention, connection, wisdom."
"I also kept thinking about leaders I admire-less for their titles than their libraries. They read widely and slowly. Their decisions seem to come from a quieter place. Kahneman would call that System 2-deliberate, effortful thought that improves judgment (Kahneman, 2011). My old pace had crowded that out. Slowing down also softened how I teach. I pause more, let a silence breathe, and aim for shared attention-the conditions that often invite flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)."
Pain forced a deliberate slowdown that revealed a life running on hurry rather than purpose. Replacing scrolling with slow, book reading lengthened attention and allowed deeper thought. Task-switching and smartphone presence reduce cognitive capacity and leave attention residue, undermining performance. Leaders who read widely appear to decide from calmer, more deliberate thought processes identified as System 2. Slowing down enables pausing, shared attention, and conditions that invite flow. Framing goals in decades emphasizes habit formation and steady identity change rather than short-term hustle and sprint-focused productivity.
Read at Psychology Today
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