Most people believe speed is the key to success, but what if the real secret is a counterintuitive change—slowing down? In this episode, April Shprintz reveals how patience and process can actually help you get what you want faster. Drawing from personal experience and military wisdom, she explores why taking your time can lead to quicker, more effective results. From mastering skills to achieving goals, slowing down might be the unexpected shortcut you need. Tune in to rethink your approach and unlock the power of the slingshot effect!
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Get What You Want Twice As Fast With One Counterintuitive Change
The Struggle Of Impatience And Wanting Things Now
I am so glad you’re here. I have a question for you. Are you a patient person? I am incredibly impatient by nature. I’ve learned patience over the years and it served me well, but I am one of those people who wanted it yesterday. At the end of every request that I make to people, there’s a word that I don’t say but is implied, which is now. If I’m saying, “Will you help me move this now? Will you give me a call quickly now?” It’s always at the end of it. Some of us are more geared to want everything right the hell now, and I’m one of those folks.
There is a counterintuitive way to get what you want so much faster, and you’re going to hate it. It is to slow down. That sounds so weird. If I hadn’t experienced it a multitude of times, I would not be telling you this because you’d be screaming, “Bullshit,” and I would understand why you were angry. The first time I learned this was in the Military. They have a saying, “Sow is smooth, smooth is fast.” It’s that you slow down to speed up a great deal.
One of the places they show you that is when you’re learning to fire an M-16. They show you how to do all the things to fire the weapon. If you’ve never fired a weapon before, you’re better at this than most people because you are learning it all at once. They have you do it slowly over and over again, and that helps you with your muscle memory. All of a sudden, you can load, aim, and fire a weapon extremely quickly, which is pretty amazing.
No matter what you're trying to accomplish, the way that you feel while you're doing it matters more than anything else. Share on XThat happens in life so many times where when we want to get something quickly, if we’re focused more on the process, whether you’re working out and you’re enjoying the reps or you’re renovating your house and you’re focusing on how beautiful it looks room by room when you do things, even if you’re renovation is nothing more than paint, going through that slowness helps the whole thing either speed up in real life like we were talking about with the weapon or even feel fast.
The Slingshot Effect: Why Progress Feels Backward Before It Speeds Up
One of the things that happens while you’re doing that is what I lovingly call the slingshot effect. It almost feels like you’re going backward. You’re slowing down so much like when you pull back on a slingshot, but as soon as you let that baby go, it flies. Whatever you’re trying to get, if you can embrace that slowness and understand that slowing down in that way is going to get you what you want twice as fast and it’s going to feel faster and happen faster, it will make such a difference for you in how you feel about it all.
How Enjoying The Process Can Lead To Faster Results
No matter what you’re trying to accomplish, the way that you feel while you’re doing it matters more than anything else. That’s what’s going to make it more fun for you. It’s going to make it seem easier. It’s going to make it more enjoyable and is going to make you better at it. The next time you’re doing something that you wish would hurry the hell up, I want you to take a deep breath, embrace where you are, and understand that if you’re going slow at this moment and you find a way to enjoy that, take those deep breaths, and do it to the best of your ability, it’s going to speed up much more quickly than you think and you’re going to get exactly where you wanted to be. Here’s to your success.
