Weekend Musings: On The Joy of "Drifting Slowly" and Being Relaxed!

As I may have said before, I tend to be one of those people who moves rather slowly. Moving slowly is in my nature and it is definitely my comfort zone.

However, moving slowly is not to suggest that I'm not productive. I just happen to be productive... slowly.

One of the things I have noticed about myself over the years, is that as long as I'm allowed to move slowly I can handle quite challenging, boring and repetitive tasks, along with things I don't really want to do, quite well. However, the moment somebody shows up and starts telling me to hurry up and to move faster that's when I start feeling stress.

And it's not only a question of stress, it is also a question of how many mistakes I make. I was once talking to a potential employer who was asking me to hurry up and move faster, and I had to explain that for every 10% faster he expected me to go I was likely to double the number of mistakes I made. Which also meant that if I had to go super super fast pretty much the only thing I would make was mistakes.

Needless to say, it was not a job I stayed in for very long!

The insight here, is that I don't get stressed out by having to do unpleasant or difficult things I don't want to do, I get stressed out by having to hurry up. And when I'm under stress I make a horrendous number of mistakes. And that only adds to my stress level!

It is just one of those realities of life that I have always lived with, and one of the things I realize has sometimes held me back because much of the world appreciates speed and quickness over slow and thorough.

It is a part of reality that moves in tandem with another part of my reality, which is that none of the things I really like doing and I'm really good at, are things people are willing to pay for. As a result of which, I have spent pretty much my entire life being what you might call "underemployed."

What that means, in plain English, is that people have always attributed a much higher potential skill and success level to me than I have attained. Well, attained by conventional measures of success.

By my own measures of success most of these things I have "failed to do" aren't things I actually care to have attempted in the first place!

Truth be known, I'm not actually complaining about my lot in life. I recognize fairly early in my life that I should not try to measure myself against other people's sense of success nor against society's measures for what a successful and happy life looks like. Instead, I have chosen to iron out my own path and according to that as a yardstick I've done pretty well for myself.

And, in the end, perhaps that is all any of us is really striving to accomplish!

Of course, that doesn't mean it's not challenging to go through a world that has expectations very different from your own. But it's better to be true to yourself than to live someone else's lies.

Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your weekend!

***How about you? Are you generally a fast mover, or a slow mover? Regardless, do you feel like you're in steep with broader societal expectations? Do you care? Do leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)
Created at 2023.05.20 23:40 PST
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