Slow vs. Simple: Competing Philosophies?

For the last few weeks, I’ve been putting forth an effort to stop rushing. Rereading my previous post, a book review on The Power of Less, I realize that some statements I made seem to be somewhat contrary to my current goals.

The book review was actually written 3 months ago, lying in wait for a case of writers block to ensure I have a post ready each and every week. In this review, I mention that I skipped through a few chapters of the book due to redundancies and repetition on the author’s part. Such an action is not really in tune with the slow philosophy.

 If my new time management philosophy has taught me anything, it’s that slow works. As a result of putting into practice the concepts contained in the book, In Praise of Slow, I have:

·         Stopped biting my nails

·         Worked less overtime

·         Drastically decreased my caffeine intake

·         Slept better

·         Been less irritable

·         Gotten more work accomplished pertaining to my own personal projects

With that in mind, I stand by the comments made in my previous post, though I do plan on rereading The Power of Less to ensure I didn’t miss anything. The “goal map” idea (see previous post) has been quite beneficial to me personally. Maintaining focus on your goals is a pillar of most personal development programs. Laying out and organizing all of your own goals complete with a personalized action plan (which is how the goal breakdown functions) is a direct approach to the abstract concepts of the “Law of Attraction” or the “Law of Intention” discussed in books like “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” by Deepak Chopra. Books like Chopra’s are interesting in their fantastic New-Age, open-to-interpretation idealism, but actionable ideas like Babauta’s quite likely have a higher success rate.   

Consider making time today to sit down and type out the many goals you want to accomplish in your life.  Start by typing them all out, then organize them in a way that they can be tackled in bite-sized pieces. I agree in taking things "one step at a time" and believe that "slow and steady wins the race", but for those concepts to work, you need to be continuously taking steps.

Good luck with all of your pursuits.