When I was taking piano lessons during my undergrad days, this was what my beloved teacher (an old-as-Noah’s ark, snarky, but loving prodigy of a woman) would always yell at me. “Slower! Slower! Stop rushing through it, play slower! Slow means slow! Hark, slow!” Not that I had a tendency to rush the given tempo of the music, but as complex as piano music can be, I was always trying to remember to get everything correct: proper fingering, pedal at the right moment, appropriate posture, and, oh yeah – ALL THOSE RIGHT NOTES. With so much to remember, I was thinking too technical sometimes/concentrating on not screwing up, and I would forget easily to take the time to slow down just enough to enjoy the music and truly understand it. As my band director once said, “the more you know the music, the more music there is.” Now yes, knowing the correct notes and other techniques are highly important, and without this competency, it doesn’t matter how “into it” or “artistic” you are trying to be – it’ll still sound less than stellar. However, a balance of both is needed for true success. If you only focus on the who, what, when, where, why and just try to have your T’s crossed and your I’s dotted, you’ll miss out on the big picture easily.
Why am I thinking about this right now? Well, by nature, I am a very busy person. I’m constantly on-the-go busy, and my brain is always cycling on what’s coming next and what I need to do to keep things successful. With school starting this Monday, being on a graduate assistantship, teaching a class, working on the weekends, and several other activities I’m involved in, it’s going to be exceptionally easy for me to get caught up and need to “SLOW DOWN!” In fact, I just had this wake-up call yesterday. I went straight from preparing multiple things at school to work, and was in such a hurry to eat and change before my shift, that I tripped going up the stairs and injured my knee. I did my best to ignore it and finish my shift, but my terrible psuedo-limping attempts didn’t fool my manager/coworkers for a minute. I intended to spend several hours between office work and then going to work today, but after much deliberation (aka my knee yelling at me when getting in the shower proved treacherous), I ended up staying home, and planning on getting my knee looked at by a professional. Yes, it hurts to walk pretty badly – skin was broken a bit, and leg movement of any kind is no picnic.
As inopportune of a time as this is between school starting on Monday, major work events on the weekend, and now not being able to ride my bike (which I JUST started getting back into this week!), it really forced me to [literally] stop and realize that if I’m not careful during the semester to watch my pace whenever possible, I might have a physical or mental collision just trying to get everything done. Short term = I’d be physically disadvantaged, or mentally messed up from overload for a while. Long term = I’d be missing out on why I’m doing the things that I’m doing because I’m so focused on getting tasks done moreso than taking care of myself. I preach self-care to everyone, but almost never put myself before others when it’s the most critical. Many of us goal-oriented folks are like this, no? I’d say as busy season approaches, this is a good time to stop and reflect on what it means to look out for oneself before it’s too late.
Hoping from good news from the doctor!
Slow Means Slow.
-BB2
BB2 