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.