Slowing Down to Speed Up

In 7th grade, I sat in Mr. Marzi’s math class—feet swinging beneath my desk, notebook open, pencil in hand when he asked a question that would quietly shape how I saw myself in the world. But it wasn’t the question that changed me. It was the silence that followed. My silence.

The moment stretched. Hands around me shot up, confidently, instantly. I sat there, still trying to understand what was even being asked. I wasn’t processing fast enough. Or at least, that’s what I thought.

The shame arrived quietly, then rooted itself deeply.

I didn’t just feel slow, I felt wrong.
Not good enough. Not smart enough.
And from that day forward, I carried the story:
“I have to move faster to be taken seriously. To succeed. To measure up. To belong.”

I spent years thinking I was a slow processor.
That everyone else was more competent, more capable.
Because they were quicker.

But now I know better.

Slowing down is not a flaw.
It’s a superpower.

And not just mine—yours too.

When we pause when we take a beat we create space.
Space for clarity to arrive.
Not from frantic thought, but from something deeper.
Something quieter.
A knowing that speaks when we finally get still enough to hear it.

I see it all the time in my work with clients.
They say, “There’s not enough time.”
I say: Bull.

Time expands or contracts based on how we hold it.
We rush because we think we must.
But what if the thing we’re rushing toward only becomes clear when we slow down?

When you pause, you get access to that one sentence, that one decision, that one choice that moves the needle—in your conversations, with your kids, in your leadership, in your life.

Slowing down is the answer.

Not because it’s easy.
But because it's true.