Slow the Game Down

In sports, we often hear announcers and analysts talk about how the best players have the ability to mentally, slow the game down so that they exercise patience, control and sound decision-making in the "heat of the moment." Rookies and other players who lack the ability to take control by mentally executing a pace and a calm when the emotion of the game and the speed of the game accelerates often make mistakes and poor decision-making that is costly.

Think for a moment about how this applies to our own lives. Does the speed of our lives sometimes interfere with our personal decision-making? Do we in the "heat of living our lives" make decisions that impact us in negative ways?

Let's exercise the  decision-making of winners by slowing down the pace of our lives so that we make better decisions for our sake and the sake of those we love or who depend on us.

Let's make a conscious decision to take a 30-minute walk at least 5 days a week. Let's make a choice to consume at least 6 glasses a water a day; preferably bottled water instead of tap water. Let's make a conscious choice to make a healthy dinner as often as possible and be willing to experiment with foods we haven't tried and have fun while doing it. Let's make the decision to read something inspirational daily or as many days as possible.

Slowing down the pace of our life produces other benefits. As we make better conscious choices we feel better about ourselves which DOES cause positive chemical reactions in our brain that impact our bodies. Taking a walk helps us to breathe deeply; another important practice for expelling harmful free radicals! All of these practices help us to achieve a healthy life-work-play balance which is crucial to health and well-being.

Work, if it causes stress and time constraints that squeeze balance from our lives is not work; it is the slow train to nowhere and a ticket to disaster.

Let's breathe deep and appreciate moments of peace and quiet and in those moments, carve out ideas and action steps that create balance and meaningful positive outcomes. Let's slow down the speed of the game and remember why we are playing it in the first place.

Here's to you and your success!