Sometimes you need to Slow Down to Speed Up

Imagine, if you will, you are driving down the road, and you see a really good friend of yours walking.  Make that - SPEED WALKING, as fast as she can, down the sidewalk.  She’s huffing and puffing, beads of sweat running down her forehead.   You‘re headed for an appointment going in the opposite direction, but you pull over to make sure she’s okay.  

You find out that she’s late for a client meeting, 5 miles away!  “I wish I could take you," you say, "but I’m headed in the opposite direction.  You should call an Uber.”  “No,” she says, ”I can’t waste time stopping to do that - I just need to keep going!!”.   Hmmm… okaaay… 

Obviously this is a silly example.  Yes, it would “slow” her progress temporarily to stop and call an Uber.  She would be standing still, making no apparent progress for 15 minutes or so while she waits for the car to come.  And perhaps she’d feel really frustrated while she stands there and watches all the other pedestrians disappear into the distance, apparently making good time.  

But we all know that by slowing down to call an Uber, she will be saving herself at least an hour of time in getting to her destination.  By slowing down for 15 minutes, she will actually speed up her trip by an hour or more.  Plus, instead of arriving at her client meeting sweaty, disheveled and exhausted, she’s going to arrive rested and energetic.   It’s a no-brainer really. 

We can all think of so many examples like this in our lives, where we have to slow down to speed up.  Pretty much any time we set up a new, more efficient system there’s going to be an awkward period at the beginning when you appear to be going slower.  

Scratch that  - you don’t appear to be going slower, you ARE going slower.  

• It used to take you an hour a month to pay your bills by check, but this Saturday you spend 3 hours or more setting up all the online bill payments, ugh, tedious! 
• You used to get along just fine hunting and pecking on the keyboard, but you decided to learn touch-typing and now your typing has slowed to a snail's pace as you try and keep your fingers on the right keys.  

It’s awkward, and it’s frustrating, but you keep with it because you have a larger vision.  You’re committed to learning a better way to do that thing so that you can save yourself time in the future.  And you know that once you get faster, it’s going to keep paying dividends forever:

• This month, you  may have taken 3 hours to set up bill pay, but next month, and every month after that, it’s going to take you NO time to write checks, because you don’t have to do that any more.  That 12-36 hours saved a year.  A pretty good return on investment, if you ask me!  
• In the future, you’ll be able to whip through your emails and meeting notes in less that half the time it used to take you.  

So this is what comes to mind for me when I hear designers say that they don’t have time to learn and implement the Design Roadmap System.  I get it.  It’s a system for busy designers - you’re busy!  I’ve been there. Looking at your calendar, you legitimately DON’T have the time right now, it’s true.  Just like your friend in the above example who didn’t have time to stop and call an Uber, you don’t have time to stop and learn a new system.  

I’m the friend offering you a faster way to get where you’re going.  But you’re going to have to slow down to go faster.

I know that it may look like you’re “wasting” time right now in stopping your work to learn the Design Roadmap System.  You're going to have to make some hard choices with your time, and it will probably mean giving up some of your much-needed free time temporarily to carve out the time to learn and implement this new system.  It’s going to feel really awkward to learn this new way, and slowly put these new system in place.  It definitely will. 

But here’s what I know for sure:  

• Using the Design Roadmap System is going to GIVE you more time than you ever knew what to do with.  
• You’re going to get your projects done more calmly and efficiently 
• You’re going to feel more sane because everything is on track 
• You’re going to have tons more free time and time off
• You’re going to be making more money  

The difference you’ll feel is like the difference between speed-walking to a client meeting or taking an Uber.  Imagine that!  And the best part is that the time you invest now will pay off FOREVER.  You can keep using the system for the rest of your career - you can continue to enjoy the benefits and just keep leveling up and up.  You never have to walk again.  

So you can imagine if you’ve been enjoying driving to all your client meetings and you saw a friend outside walking, you’d also want to pull over and help them out.   You’d want to give them the tools so they could independently drive to all their meetings too.  

So that’s exactly how I think of the Design Roadmap System.  It’s my car that I found to get me to my destination faster, and much more enjoyably!  And I want you to have your own car so you can enjoy this as well.  But you’re going to need to slow down in order to speed up.  

And this will feel perfectly fine as long as you keep that larger vision in your heart and and your mind.  You won’t be slowing down forever…. It’s only temporary.  Believe me - you’re going to blow your own mind when you find out just how fast you can go when you have the right tools!  

Did you know the Design Roadmap Course is evergreen, so you can sign up and learn and implement the System on your own schedule?  Click here to schedule a free discovery call today to see if the Design Roadmap System is right for you!