Pace, volume, quality, and cost.
Some people (who are not me) are fast hikers.
They’re just naturally fluid and they cover a lot of ground speedily. If I were to try to keep up with these people it would cost me more (in sore legs the next day) and the quality of the hike wouldn’t be worth the investment.
If those people tried to slow down to my pace, they’d be bored and have stiff hips from taking smaller steps.
The same is true at work or even doing weekend projects.
There are some people who are naturally constantly on the go and working fast. They get a lot done, it costs them little and the quality is fine. It stresses these people out if you disallow them to work on the weekends or force them into chitchat in the break room. They have to go. Depth and observation might not be a strength of these people, but they deliver a lot. Some employers think we should all be like this. We’re not.
A lot of us can forge ahead swiftly, but only sometimes. For these people (most people), the natural pace is a bit slower, and the volume of work they get done is more moderate. But if they honor this, their work will also be good quality and the personal cost minimal. The key for these people is to be working on the right things. They can’t do it all (at once), so they have to be especially good at prioritizing. If they are able to do that successfully, there will be a bit more depth, and maybe also clarity of purpose and a sense of satisfaction. Sometimes they will have to outsource other things that are not high priorities (mowing the grass, updating a business webpage), and sometimes those other things will just take a back seat until later. Or if they do try to do it all, the cost becomes too much - overwhelm and stress in the short term, burnout in the long run.
And then there are those of us who are the most deliberate. We might call these people slow, but they could also be the most sure-footed and focused. These are often the master craftsmen and artisans, painstakingly whittling and measuring and tinkering and smoothing. These people often have little attention for other things and their volume is low. But the quality - that’s their thing. It costs them only if they’re forced to deliver anything less than amazing.
Each workplace, business, and neighborhood needs all three types. Sometimes people in the other categories can drive us a bit nuts, but the balance benefits us all. We need to honor each other’s hiking style.
Where’s your natural pace? Do you ever try (or are forced) to be in a different group?
Where would feel more natural?
What needs to change?
I have loved many of your posts, but this one really resonated with me. You so clearly presented our human differences without judgment, and then went one step further - saying we need each type. Putting it all in the context of hiking brought it home in more ways than one! Thanks, Anne!
Yes! All of this. I can't tell you how many times I have felt guilty because I was "caught" not diligently typing away at my computer or focused intently on the pixels I was moving across my screen. A lot of the times I'm thinking of concepts or just lost in daydream thinking of creating content or a design. This doesn't look at all like what most Americans consider "hard working."