Be a Tortoise, Not a Hare

How many times did your parents and teachers tell you to slow down? You probably don't know—you were moving too fast to hear what they said!

Turns out they might have been on to something. Faster isn't always better. In fact, slower is usually the way to go.

"Pshaw!" you say. OK, you probably don't say pshaw, but we know you're already itching to move on from this and get into the other 27 emails awaiting you this morning. Here it is in a nutshell:

If you want to be successful, happy, sane and fulfilled, SLOW. DOWN. Life goes by way too quickly as it is. Do you really want to be filled with regret at the end of your rapid life because you rushed from work to your daughter's recital only to leave after 20 minutes because you had to be somewhere else? Is it really worth it to have enough money to travel if the only memories you have are postcards and a hazy recollection of some monuments that blended into the scenery as you whizzed by at warp speed?

Bob Dylan once said that he did everything fast. He also said he eventually realized he needed to slow down if he was going to be an artist who had anything to say.

Changing the way you approach life will have a profound effect on the way you live it. Sure, fast is good for things like getting to a hospital and Olympic sprinting, but for daily life? Slow will do just fine.