What is the true net cost / benefit of speed?

I know I know, not my normal style of image to start off one of my newsletters. But bear with me, I think the imagery will help with the story.

How often do you have an extra 5 minutes in your day? You know, just simple time to react to something the world throws at you, be it an opportunity, a hiccup, or anything in between? See, this kind of time used to be a lot more common, and I think it’s a super power that a lot of us lack today.

I remember it vividly, driving down the road in my father’s old Chevrolet S10 pick up truck. Cassette player playing watermelon crawl by country music singer Tracy Bird. I was young enough to not care what time of day it was, I was just enjoying the drive with my dad. When suddenly the tone in the truck turned to excitement. My dad stopped, pulled over, and hopped out of his truck without a second thought. He had noticed the above bug fogger laying on the side of the road like someone had lost it out of their truck. He grabbed it, threw it into the bed of his truck, and without having to say a word, I knew we just got something new and cool!

This story may seem like a small moment, but when you stop and really take a close look, there’s something about it that’s lacking for most of us today. Do you have time on the majority of your drives to stop abruptly to pick up something like that? Do you have the space in your life to be that flexible to just take a pause? I know often times I don’t. Running from place to place, often running late, leaving myself very little time in-between the current thing and the next, that the idea of something like this feels like a time that has long past.

My challenge this week is to create more space. It’s unbelievable how much we strive to fill up our calendars. Things like time blocking have become almost a norm for people. Instead of pushing to fill all the gaps, try to create more. Give yourself space to actually let life happen around you instead of having your head so far down that you miss the bug foggers laying on the side of the road (metaphor). I think we would all be amazed if we had more grey space in our day to day, how much we would see that we otherwise would’ve missed.

On the week of mother’s day id be amidst to not mention my mom here. This newsletter is not the first project that i’ve done in my life, and i’m confident it won’t be the last. Since I was a kid, I knew I didn’t want to go to college and wanted to pursue carving my own path. Most moms I think would probably be nervously hesitant if this was their son, but not mine. This woman has shown me how to be relentless, how to selflessly care for others, and how to never stop pushing forward. Im sure she will see this, because like everything else i’ve ever tried in my life, she supports it all. I love you mom, thank you for always having my back.

Tim is the GOAT let’s just be honest. I love this tweet, and this concept. I am an operator at my core. I love to do lists, calendars, and all this efficiency. But this little nudge is always a great reminder that applied to the wrong things and it’s all just a bunch of fluff. Taking the time to realize WHAT you do is the real value is a non negotiable piece of the puzzle. This, like my above story, is another reason to allow more grey space in your calendar. Give yourself time for the walk, the empty thought time, the time to read the article you’ve had flagged for months. I promise you, the what becomes infinitely more clear the more time you give yourself to ponder on it.

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