Splitting Seconds
Winning an important moment is not a function of getting it done quickly. Instead, it is about flexibility. It is about using the elasticity of time to reset the moment and reshape the space.
Actions executed within condensed circumstances advance properly when critical moments are slowed and repaired.
If you think this post is about the politics of the week… it’s not. I started writing it a month ago.
I spent a 20-year period of my life navigating through tiny spaces on a thundering and unpredictable force of energy. I was in search of a fraction of seconds.
This is the nature of canoe racing on whitewater river rapids.
The 2004 Olympic Games in Athens was my second Games where I represented the United States. When I hopped out of my racing canoe for the final time at the end of that event, I was more than ready to start a new profession.
I figured my honed talent of *going fast and clean* would serve me well in a future that would value expediency, first, and now.
Yet, for years, all I seemed to do was fumble my way through quick responses and quicker actions that led to a long line of mistakes that piled up behind me.
My version of “Game On” took place at a frantic pace built on poor metrics.
I constantly compressed and stripped away integral pieces of health and relationships in favor of the appearances of keeping up. Or perhaps the feel of moving up.
Years into mismanaging my perceptions and values about speed, I turned my thoughts back to the ideas that guide me more than any others.
Calm within the river’s force
Our most frantic situations are most often punctuated by moments of calm. Ignore the stimulation and noise created by yourself or by others. Choose to be calm so that you can reflect with deliberate consideration of the real circumstances at hand.
Course correct mindfully
Any time we increase rate, mistakes can follow. Mistakes do not necessarily blow up the game — but not fixing them does. If there’s only one thing I desire to do more mindfully, it is to correct what is not working.
The voice that calls for the speed that the world supposedly requires is loud and forceful. It is dramatic. It says “look at me” while it splashes around.
The true voice that calls us comes from a place of quiet. Where split seconds become whole.
With gratitude,
Joe
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Hi, I’m Joe, the owner of 5 With Joe Performance Coaching. My clients are leaders, organizations, and teams who utilize my Olympic Gold Medal performance strategies and 40 years of navigating whitewater river rapids to streamline decision making and actions when engaged in complicated river currents of business and life.
The best way to interact with me is through Sunday Morning Joe, my weekly newsletter that explores the art of improving performance, overcoming challenge, and aligning with purpose for Sunday readers in search of more depth and motivation. Subscribe HERE for free.
