Nicolas Boulenger - Welcome
Note of the day : Slowness in People and Dogs
I regularly rediscover the benefits and formidable effectiveness of doing things extremely slowly.
For example:
I recently dealt with someone particularly unpleasant.
Instead of being reactive and responding immediately... I took all the time in the world.
I decided that my reaction to this interaction would be the template for handling people like that in the future. The prototype.
So I held back, letting myself feel each emotion, weighing the pros and cons of every response.
And I handled it like a champ.
I didn't lose my temper, and I got everything I wanted.
This idea of a "prototype" comes up a lot in my daily life.
I thought about it while watching a video of a dog trainer explaining to owners that you should never repeat a command.
Once you've said "sit!", you wait. As long as it takes.
Then reward the dog only when it obeys – even if it takes several minutes. Otherwise, you're training it to ignore the first few commands and only comply once you get angry.
Now I apply this method everywhere.
When facing a new task, I go as slowly as possible.
The goal isn't to get it right straight away, but to get exactly the result I want, however long it takes.
I'm building a mechanism. Only precision matters.
And after the first success, do I try to speed up?
Not even.
You never need to worry about going fast.
You only ever need to do it well.
With repetition, speed comes on its own.