Speed Is Slowing You Down

It feels good to be busy. We are taking meetings, making slides, walking fast, talking fast. Intoxicating. The time ticks by with an effervescent caffeination as we relish the sweat on our brow, feeling like we are really making it happen. As the days compound to weeks compound to months compound to years, what if we aren't making progress. We are putting in the work (lot of it!) but we feel no closer to what we want than when we started.

Our issue, we realize, is that we were chasing fast on the wrong path, myopically focused on doing what was in front of us as quickly as possible. Breaking through barriers and knocking down walls leading us on a path to nowhere. This is the fatality of speed.

Speed is a scalar quantity, defined only by the magnitude of action. Velocity, on the other hand, is a vector quantity that requires both magnitude and direction. Speed solves for movement while velocity solves for displacement. Do we want to move fast or move far?

Speed is the billiard ball hit too hard, bouncing around the table indeterminably but never sinks into a pocket. Speed is the lost hiker frantically pacing ground to find the trail while climbing in the wrong direction. Speed is the business constantly trying the same approaches again and again, perpetually dismayed at lack of progress.

Velocity takes time and reflection at the outset to understand what is the direction we want to go and how best to get there. Our movement may appear slow as we strategically plot our course. However, once we choose our path we strike like lightening, applying our every effort of force in this direction that we best believe will move us toward our goal.

The only nice thing I can say about speed is that given the alternative of standing completely still, speed is preferable. If we do not know where to go, speed may allow sampling of ideas and space to inform where we ultimately want our velocity to take us. Speed is a near-term solution to stasis. Stasis = death.

We continue to move and gyrate in life, finding what we want and taking effort to achieve it. How fast we move ultimately matters nothing, unless we are moving in the direction of our goal. Focus on velocity and seek displacement between where you are and where you want to be.

- Jeremy