Too Slow, Too Fast, Just Right: Pace yourself

“Dishwasher wisdom: the plates will wait, your cortisol won’t.”   You know that specific kind of slow? The immigration line. I used to stand there mentally willing the officer to move faster. I wanted them to be kinder in not wasting time. That said, I remain grateful for my EB-1 visa and a few decades of perspective. Their job can be repetitive, under-rewarded, and thankless.

Then there’s my stylist- my magician with scissors, the one whose hands know exactly what your hair wants before you do. Every December she transforms into a machine that is tightly wound- due to her highest conscience as she is steamrolled under the weight of everyone else’s Christmas urgency. I want to hug her and whisper “the hair will take exactly as long as it takes, my love.”

Two extremes. Both very human. Both very costly.

Under high stress, there is a rise in cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine- hijacking the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational commander, replacing clear thinking with forgetfulness and noise. Some of my patients ask me if this dysfunction is adult ADHD.  I often think it can be a situationally induced problem.

One example that I hold dear is News readers! Nothing is rushed, so nothing needs repeating. The rhythm is metronomic- neither energetic nor sluggish, but deliberate, giving equal respect to the trivial and the grave. Clarity is always chosen over speed. They resist acceleration under pressure, matching tone to the task rather than anxiety to the moment. They are meticulous without being perfectionist. There is a composed authority that signals they are in full command of their work.

I practice this now in the smallest corners of my day. Emptying the dishwasher- dish by dish, unhurried, settled. It may take two minutes longer, if that. But that calm, anchored pace doesn’t just empty the dishwasher. It sets the tone. It carries forward into the next hour, the next meeting, the next decision.

This is a message for the parent rushing to the school run with a pounding heart. For the professional drowning in competing priorities, eating lunch while answering emails. You don’t have to choose between doing it all and doing it well. You just have to pace yourself and be content.

Disengagement flatlines us. Panic hijacks us. But that calm, metronomic, fully-present pace? That’s where the best work lives. That’s where craft becomes almost effortless. That’s where your health is protected, your thinking stays clear, and perhaps most surprisingly- that’s where your real power lives. The newsreader. The dishwasher. The quiet, deliberate, unrushed moment that changes everything. Pace yourself.

There is more power in it than you know.