Slow it Down!

Yesterday I was listening to sports radio. The topic was Football and speed. There was an interview with a San Diego Charger offensive lineman. The line has been playing better football recently and he was asked why. He said, "we've got a couple young guys on the line and it takes a long time to slow the game down" by this he mean's learn the job so well that the intense speed of the game is no longer a factor. At that point the difference is knowing your assignment on the play and executing it.

This made me think about our life right now. I'll speak for myself in saying that I haven't caught up to the speed yet. The speed that is the new job, the speed that is the new pace of life, the speed that is club cross country. It's not that I can't handle it. Just like the NFL linemen, I have all the tools to do it but I'm just not there yet.

Job - It's interesting that I find myself back at the start. When I joined Road Runner Sports is was going backwards. There is just no other way to put it. After years of doubling the business the business hit a snag and was going south. The business was fast and diverse but not really going anywhere. It took 1.5 years to slow it down and then bam the business absolutely took off. It wasn't just my doing, there were 6-8 of us that joined at the same time and grew on the same curve. Now at Zoot I find myself doing the same things. The business is not shrinking it's just new. Much of the things that need to be done are the same as my early days at RRS. I don't think we have 1.5 years to do slow the speed down. Luckily I have a bigger tool box this time around.

Life - When we moved to Germany it was a good 6 months before we matched the speed of life. Everything was different and we weren't up to it at the start. The interesting part about that was that we moved at different times and therefore had to go through it twice. I had to get used to Germany and then I had get used to the speed of Germany with Mary and Marco. Now we move back to California and it's like that underlying pressure to be at speed right now. Why wouldn't we, we lived it before. Not so fast though. We were living at Germany speed. Now only 3 months back in California and we're running into the speed trap. Throw into the trap a fairly intense cross country season and we've totally blown the speed barrier. I give us another 3 months before we slow this life down. Again that does not mean it actually slows down. Just that we get to turn our focus to using the tools we have at executing rather than what I know I'm doing now, chasing the speed.

It's a good life....

Dave