Ep891 Slowing Down To Speed Up

Ever feel like you’re running a marathon at a sprinter's pace, but somehow... you're still staying in the exact same place?

In a culture that worships the non-stop hustle, we’ve been conditioned to believe that moving faster is the only way to get ahead. But what if your obsession with speed is the very thing holding you back?

In this episode, we dive deep into the ultimate productivity paradox: why you have to slow down to go fast.

We unmask the illusion of "fake speed"—the sloppy mistakes, the constant re-work, and the mental friction that happens when we rush. Drawing inspiration from the military maxim "slow is smooth, and smooth is fast," we break down how strategic pauses actually accelerate your long-term progress.

Transcript

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Yo, it's your main man Raheem Rasio, yeah. You over felt like you was running at a spinner's pace, right? Running full speed. But somehow you just got nowhere. Somehow things still was in the same position. Somehow you forgot something. Somehow you didn't do what you needed to do. You feel me? Somehow you had to go back and do it again. You understand me? Like a lot of times in life, man, when we doing things, we've been told to like move fast, you feel me? Uh the secret to actually doing something is hitting your goals, is hitting the gas, you feel me? Fuck hitting the brakes. You feel me? Like all gas, no brakes, you dig? Like some people just tell you to go, go, go, go, go, go, go. You dig? But today, man, I'm gonna walk you into the world of how to what slow down so you can go fast. You dig? That's the main thing. Slow down so you can go fast, you dig? Once you slow down, you can build momentum. Once you slow down, you can have a what steady pace. They say the turtle beat the rabbit every time. You understand me? Because the turtle is what? Taking his time. So today, man, we finna get right into it. We finna go over the fake speed illusion, right? We finna get into it, man. Let's go. Alright. Alright, like, let's be honest with ourselves for a second. Think about the last time you rushed through a project, right? Think about the last time you worked out. Think about the last conversation that you had that was pressed for time that should that um like what actually happened. Like every time you feel that pressure when you doing some of being rushed, what's going on? You feel me? You impatient, you're not loving the moment. You dig things, your blood pressure high, your heart rate up, you're not thinking clearly. You feel me? A lot of clarity is what falls out at the time. So when you moving and when you're thinking about life in the rush, you always beat yourself in the back. You dig you always gotta take you really taking a step backwards when you're rushing. You feel me? You really moving uncorrectly. Like you hurt yourself when you're thinking that okay, I'm finna do this real fast and I'll be done. You hurting yourself when you do that. You feel me? I'm finna go work out real fast. No, you can work out real slow. Ten minutes go by fast if you working out slow. 10 minutes go by fast if you running slow. 10 minutes go by fast if you were constantly doing it at a pace, you feel me? You trying to rush through it. Now you didn't you done hurt your muscles, you didn't, you didn't um hurt your joints. You did you didn't get warmed up like it's like an old-ass car. You can't just hop in and then just hit the gas and go. You feel me? You're gonna blow the motor. You feel me? You're gonna fuck the transmission up. You're gonna do something to the car that's not supposed to be done because you're in a rush, you feel me? So rushing through a project, right? If I got a project on my own, why would I want to rush through this project? You feel me? The quicker I get it, like some people say they work better when they in the rush. You feel me? I don't feel like that no more. I used to feel like that. You feel me? I used to feel like okay, if I at the end, I got more, I got all my thoughts together. You feel me? I got everything aligned. Like my like my brain wanna, nah, if I would have thought about this shit four or five weeks ago, you feel me, two months ago, I would have had way more shit done. I would have been able to take in on this topic longer. I would have been able to take in on this, like digesting things longer and seeing it repetitive longer. It helps you remember way more than if you would have did it on the last day. You feel me? Now you got only what you damn it reserve, you feel me? You probably didn't research this much you need to do. You feel me? Like you can just focusing on what day you want to research on. You could have been doing that way longer, way before, and that would have made it way better. You feel me? Because now you got more points to go off of, right? So now, like life life goes on, man. Don't expect to have the same perspective forever. Don't expect it to feel the same way forever. So moving fast, man. Chances are you made a slight mistake. You feel me? You're gonna forget a key detail, you're gonna burn yourself out halfway through because you spend so much time trying to fix it later. You feel me? Like you still working on the same fucking problem because you but rushing, rushing. Every week you're gonna get no break. Every week you on somebody clock, every week you um giving everybody else time, every week you study talking. Every week it's easy to give all your time away. You feel me? It's like it's like just throwing your money if you feel like you got a lot of it, and then you just fuck it. It's like just throwing money out the window. You feel me? Like when you rushing some shit, because you finna have to go spend more time on it. You feel me? You you rushing, you don't want to get your oil changed, so you rushing to work every day. Oh, I ain't got time to get out. I'm rushing to get the kids every day. Oh, you gonna oh the car, you're gonna make time for the car, but now you finna make way more time for it because what you didn't go make time for it when you're supposed to do. You feel me? You didn't do it on a routine, you feel me? You didn't go do it when it was time, so now you're gonna gotta go. Now you can't go get the kids. You feel me? Now you can't go do this, and you can't go do that. You feel me? Because you don't handle things in the way you should, right? Because you want to what move fast, and and it's all an illusion when you moving fast, man. It's called what fake speed. You feel me? So let's get to the next section, man. The next section is okay. Look, I don't want to miss nothing either. This says in the military, right? The naval shields has a famous saying, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. You feel me? So it's saying that pace. I just read about this in um Discipline is Destiny, right? And he was saying, like, how the soldier, like, he got the name for like being like, it's like a it's basically like for being slow, hasty, like, but slow with a good slow, with a good pace, you feel me? Like he was a warrior, he was a soldier, and it he had went through the um he wasn't like military, he he did like a lot of things, but anyway, his technique was slow. He didn't move fast like everybody else, you feel me? He didn't go rush through things, you feel me? But when when it was time to attack his enemy, he gave it all, like he gave it all his real speed. You feel me? Like, he didn't waste energy just moving fast, trying to, you know, capture and kill. Like he made sure that he made it slow, smooth, you feel me? Like when you rush, you create friction. You feel me? You make mistakes, you fix mistakes. Fixing mistakes takes away more than time than doing it the right the first time. It's a massive difference between being active and being productive. Rushing gives you the illusion of speed, but it's actually dragging us backwards, right? So once we look at something that's dragging us backwards, that's moving us in a certain way, that's not taking our mind to the thing that we need to go to. We're gonna keep on rushing all the time to slow this shit down. I'm finna slow down. I got too much going on. I need to slow down. You feel me? I need to move slow. You feel me? And the main thing of moving slow is you want to what plan. And this is gonna, we're gonna get into that the next phase, right? Like the three, this is the next pillar. The three pillars of strategically moving slow, right? Like you want to strategically move slow. You don't want to have that friction on you where you moving fast. You feel me? You want to be moving slow, right? So, how do you do that? How to actually apply this without falling behind. It comes down to three pillars, y'all. There's three pillars, right? First one is measure twice, cut it once. Like, I talk about this all the time. Like this talk, this is in one of my books, The Atomic Habits, and in one of the uh in the seven habits of the effective people. Like, sell it. Yeah, the seven habits of the highly effective people. I don't got my glasses on, y'all. But anyway, right? Let's get to it. Before you start a major goal or tag, spend 10% more time planning than you think you need. Define what exactly what you need done, what done looks like. When you have done it, when you have done a crystal clear map of that, don't waste time wandering around and guessing your next move. You feel me? Like, you gotta know what what out of privacy looks like to you. You gotta know what's in a better position look like to you. You feel me? If you just keep on wondering, you're gonna keep on spending money on any and everything, right? Because you are wandering around. You're gonna keep on going to any and every job because you are wondering. You feel me? So when you are measuring some, where's this gonna take me? When you map this shit out, put it on paper, man. I'm tired of this shit. You can put in your phone, but put it on paper. I don't like no more phones, no more phones. We need paper with us at all times. You need paper and pencil with you at all times. You feel me? Once you put this on paper, you really can see this way better. If you gotta draw it out, draw the people, draw the house, do that. Either one or the other, draw it or write it. You feel me? But use a paper and pen. Get your get your pens. Get them all ready. Like put it in your put it in your spirit, get your markers, get your coloring pencils. Just like these kids finna go to school. You need to get your mind ready to go to school, take yourself to school, see where you're gonna take your kids, see where you're gonna take your life, see where you're gonna take yourself. See when you see what you see where you're gonna take your mind and your body and your spirit. You feel me? Like seated so you can know. Okay, this is what's gonna go down, right? And once you know that, you have measured it twice. You feel me? So spend 10 more time on it, y'all. Spend 20 more time on spend how much time on planning that you got to plan, but you gotta plan, right? And the next thing is man single and multitasking. Multitasking is a lie, and I know it's a lot of life because I tried this, it was on Netflix. It was a thing that showed me, like, it's a watch this. Okay, and I watched it, and it's asked me how many something, and I couldn't, you feel me? Because my brain was focusing on this, then it was focusing on this. You feel me? You cannot multitask. You feel me? It's a lot. Like, I actually have to try it. Like, let me try to multitask. Hell no, you can't. You only switching your focus from back to back, back to back. You feel me? Like, you know, somebody doing, like, even with people doing my hair. This girl, she talks so fucking much, she takes so long because we sitting there talking. But a motherfucker who's sitting there not talking and just getting to it takes half the time. You feel me? So that just her just saying words and stopping and and going versus the other girl just done. That shit gonna what spend less time on what talking on doing your hair, right? So when you person is when the brain is just rapidly switching focuses, the brain, you drain your energy and you slow down. You feel me? Pick one thing, give it 45 minutes of absolute undivided attention. You'll get more done in one hour and slow deep focus than you would in four hours of fast and distracted focus. You feel me? So if you just focusing the whole time, you ain't gotta worry about this being all damn day. You ain't gotta worry about, oh, I ain't do enough. No, you slow down, you paste it yourself. You you gotta look what it say you give a low, give it low weight, high reps, or heavier weights. I mean, yeah, low weights, and you're gonna do a lot of reps, or you're gonna do what? Low reps with a lot of weight, you dig? So that's what it's on. Like you take your time with that shit, you you gonna feel it. You feel me? Once you feel it, how many times you gonna burn out three times? Are you through for the day? You ain't gotta kill yourself, burn out three, four times. I'm done. You feel me? Three, four sets. You feel me? You get in, you get out, like you ain't gotta think about doing this all day if you do it right the first time. You're gonna feel that pain if you run the whole damn 10 minutes, Raheem. You're gonna feel your heart rate going up if you speed up three, four times in the middle of your run, Raheem. So you just try to keep that up every day. You ain't trying to kill yourself, but you do that one or two, get the heart rate pumping good. You can be good, man. And this pillar three, right? Guard your rest. Think of the Formula One racing. Cars don't skip the pitch stops to save time. If they did, their tires would explode and the engine would blow up. Your rest is your pit stop. Slowing down is to snowing down is to sleep, walk, or just to unplug is actually what fills you, I mean refills your engine so you can sprint when it matters. You feel me? So don't, so this is basically saying, look, when it's time to go to bed, nigga, rest. Don't, don't look, because man, I got this new ritual. Y'all, I got up this morning, but I did not get all the way up. I said, damn, I'm I really woke up on time, huh? Like I said, I'm getting up at three. Like I heard my conscience is wake is up or then, so I'm I'm up. Fuck it. I'm trying to get up at that time. Artists and shit getting up at three, I'm I'm I'm with it. So I'm training my mind and my body. So the morning I got up, I looked at the phone. All I had to do was roll over and just start studying. But I said, well, we I want uh sleep too good. So I just laid back down, got about, got up about five, then laid back down, looked at my phone for two seconds. I said, damn, you bullshitting this morning. Then I got up at I got up at six o'clock, like six, six thirteen, and I started running. So my brain, you know, it's just a breakthrough. I ain't expect to, you know, just do it the first day, know it, but I know tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday, I'm gonna try my best to get up at three, roll over, study, read my Bible. I'm finna start reading my Bible today. I'm finna bust that open. And um just I know that the routine of me getting up those three hours, having that maintenance for my mind in the morning, is gonna cure a lot of a lot of trouble throughout the whole day. You feel me? I'm gonna be prepared for the whole day. I'm gonna be thought about what I need to think about. You feel me? I'm gonna be doing what I need to do. I'm I'm just like getting a head start on the day. You feel me? So peaceful in three in the morning. Ain't nobody here but you. Ain't nobody, you know, even they so deep in their sleep. Like I even woke up by my sleep and went start back dream. Like my dream be so deep, I can I can like I hit pause on my dream, go to the bathroom, come back to dream still going on. Like, damn. And it's so good when you can sleep all day sometimes, you feel me? But I know me, it's it's not healthy to be sleep, so I try my best to get up early as possible because I know I'm wasting a day away. So let's guard us guard our wrist, man. So dang, you feel me? You doing this, you gonna you going to sleep so you can get up ready to go. You going to sleep so you can get up ready to move, you feel me? You you getting your wrist, you can take them pit stop. It's it's a thing about sleep. It's it this man here. In this book here, I f this this apart I this goes so hard. But anyway, he was talking about like sleep and how the man just manages the sleep. Okay, yeah. Like, okay, this man was um just take catnap. He was a boxer, and he'll take a cat nap before a fight, right? And you can get him with some ass. Like, damn. For real. I said, okay. So once you know how to goddamn it sleep and and get that right, so he'll go right here. This nigga named Archer Moore. That's okay, this is my last name. So sleep is an active character, right? The night before he fought Archie Moore for the title in 1956. Y'all see how I remember this shit? Like, I remember all these books like this. You feel me? Once I touch them, I like damn near like your brain download the information again. But like, it was Floyd, so the man, the fighter was named Floyd Patterson. He executed a single most important part of his training regimen, right? It wasn't some last-minute condition or another review of the fight plan. He went he went to sleep for the few um few few winks for the 11 and a half hours, waking and just in time for the morning weigh-in. And before he left the arena, he took a three-hour nap. And then he napped in his dressing room. Man, this is crazy. He napped in his dressing room before he entered the ring, where he knocked out the Dostin champion in the fifth round. When you're going to go toe-to-toe with one of the best boxing of all time, you better be well rested. When you're trained as hard as Patterson did, you better make sure you're also given the body time to recover. Everyone, everyone else was nervous, everyone else was checking and um re-checking plans, but Patterson was asleep. Not because he didn't care about those things, but because he cared, because what he cared about most, while the ability to sleep quickly and rest well might not seem like a matter of disclosure. I mean, like a matter of discipline. It very much is. In fact, the armed forces they refer to is the idea of sleep discipline. It's something you are not only have to do, but it's something you have to enforce yourself in terms of both quantity and quality. The higher the stakes, the more driven you are, the more stressful the situation, the more disciplined sleep routines require. Like for real. Like you want to be disciplined, man. You gotta take your ass to bed. And that is it. You feel me? Like this shit talking about, like, okay, let me see. And this is another one, right? The fighter. Then I forgot I forget about it, but I ain't know his name. I know I knew he was in the army, though. But this man, somebody right here, right? He was a um general in Paris of Gulf, right, in the 1900s. Future four star Amira James Starvins had been given the command of ship for the first time. He occurred exactly at the same time he noticed at age 38 that his natural metabolism and his infemine youth ability to just gut it out had begun to decline. You don't have to be the most self-aware person on the planet to see that you make worse decisions when you're tired. So let me get to the part where they was talking about the man just responded to sleep. Like he treated sleep in response, in response to the monitor, okay, in the in response, right? He began to monitor the sleep cycles and the crew and monitor the watch duties and encouraged naps where possible, watching over our physical health. He will write later the specifically the act of character can immersely help help you, your ability to perform. I want to get to what this man said. He was asleep for like 10 minutes. And like did just keep get get back and keep going. Like this is crazy. Like you knowing that if you're getting the right amount of sleep, right, you're gonna you ain't gotta worry about being tired. You feel me? Like picking yourself up and walking to the bathroom and then passing out. Like meanwhile, we're at home, burnt out for a long day. We made that and we exercised, we put our kids to bed, we caught up and eating man, we exhausted, and it feels like we just can't vet off the couch. When in fact, we need a final punch discipline, picking ourselves up and walking to the bedroom and passing out. This is saying, like, just solve your problem, take your bed. Period. Like you feel me? Like, if it will solve so many of your problems, you're tired, you so you don't want to work out, you're tired, so you're procrastinating, you're tired, so you need the coffee, so you're tired, so you pop that pill, you're tired, so you make the bad decision that eat up hours and hours of your work that should be spent on things that matter. You feel me? Nigga tired all day. You tired of tired of living, ain't you? God damn. You dig? Like, we say we say I'm not a morning person, but this is almost certainly because we have been in responsible and un in um in or uh undisciplined evening person. You feel me? So we we ain't no fucking morning person or evening person. You feel me? The best way to master the morning is to is to master it the night before, just as anyone who has slept and trained in infinite and learned sleep begets sleep. So so it does discipline and beget discipline, right? So early to bed, early to rise, under the blankets is no way to fame. Under the blankets is no way to fame. You feel me? Dante said in in the morning, and yet the paradoxically getting under the blankets consistently, reasonably, without the delay of fame, or in the least to solid performance, and one has leaped from the bed in the door. You want to think clearly tomorrow, you want to handle small things right, you want to have the energy to hustle, go to sleep. Not just because your health depends on it, it's because your act of character from which all your other decisions matter. Like, you feel me? So I'm so glad I read that. Like, I love this book because it's like you really can read one chapter in 10 minutes, in five minutes if you want to. But anyway, like just saying it, I just had to put that sleep game on your mind. You feel me? Because you guard that rest, you guarding a lot of shit. You ain't gotta worry about not doing what you need to do because you guarding at rest, man. And the last thing is mainly the long game, you feel me? Like, the truth is building anything that lasts, a business or a creative project in a healthy body or in a relationship takes time. You feel me? When you commit to slowing down, you aren't being lazy. You feel me? You are choosing depth over quality. Like, fuck that. I need to slow this shit down. Let me go do this for a while. You feel me? Let me go handle this. You feel me? Like, you'll want you want that quality of life instead of that uh a big ass, small ass house with a bunch of shit in you rather have a big ass house with what? The shit that's needed in instead of a small house with a bunch of junk because you have accumulated so much junk over the years that you can even imagine, right? So let's slow it down, let's see where we're going. You feel me? You are choosing to build a foundation on the brick instead of rushing to put up a house made of what? Cards. You feel me? Card paper boys. So when the storm hits, the fast, flats, and slimmy collapses. The slow and solid one stands, right? So you're trying to stand up to everything that you know is not good, right? And once you do this, man, you ain't gotta worry about not having what you need or not being able to do what you need because you didn't did it, right? Man, this video done went so long and I didn't even notice it, but this is this is part of the game, man. So let's play the long game, man. Let's go ahead and get into our sections, man. Like, like let's commit to slowing down. You feel me? Like, let's just commit to that. And the last thing is, man, I want y'all to do an hour of the day. It's Monday. Y'all just take an hour to yourself and just plan. Plan. Plan. Get you some fruit. Don't eat no bullshit while you're playing it. Don't eat nothing that you feel. If it ain't a whole fruit, if it ain't no nuts, if it ain't no water with no with no lemon or lime in it, don't drink it right now. Leave it alone right now. Let your brain fast for that moment. Once you start putting shit on your mind, food on your in your body, your brain starts thinking for you and seeing how this gotta go. You feel me? Your body starts forgetting shit. You feel me? So you start eating dumb shit, you start feeling that the dumbness, the the the deafness, you feel me? The stillness that's that's broken because you eating dumb shit. So don't eat nothing stupid right now. I'm eating some meat, some black grapes. This is better than nothing. It's better than it's better than some bullshit. So whatever your good shit is in the house, eat that right now. Whatever you got in that motherfucker, you ain't got nothing good. Wait, just wait. Fasting is the best thing anyway. You feel me? I don't like eating in the morning, but I've been eating in the morning. And I've been trying to eat my fruit only though, man. So this video helps y'all listen to that way. Man, y'all like, comment, and subscribe, man. Y'all slow y'all ass down. While y'all doing what y'all do, driving, chilling, planning, slow it down. Say, man, I'm moving slow today. I'm not finna, I'm I'm not on that. You feel me? You're gonna pass everybody still because you what? Moving slow. You're taking your time. I mean, y'all, the video man helped y'all, man. Y'all know what to do. And for y'all listeners, man, I hope y'all having a great day. And y'all hope y'all, you know, do go and do what y'all want to do with y'all's life, man. Amen. Let's go.