More Hurry, Less Speed — Revisited

My mother’s extraordinary wisdom was often doled out in small doses.

My mother was a brilliant woman. Oh, she was not highly educated. She did not run a Fortune 500 corporation. She did not control a multi-billion dollar stock portfolio.

She was none of those things typically classified as “brilliant.”

She was, to coin a well-worn cliche, “street smart.”

My mother learned about life by living it. She was raised in a poverty-level family with twelve children (two of whom did not live to reach adulthood) and an often drunk father who couldn’t always hold down a job. She was a teenage bride, soon followed by being a teenage mother.

In spite of a lack of privilege and opportunity, she worked side by side with my father to raise four children who all became model citizens in society.

Nothing came easily to her. She cooked her own food, sewed her own clothing, and grew her own flowers and vegetables. She made life work for her.

To the best of my knowledge, she never expected it to be any other way.

Wisdom came from my mother, not through droning lectures, but in small snippets of hard earned struggle. She guided us to the age of reason but, after a certain point, she did not tell us children what to do. As we grew in age, she allowed experience to show us many of the right (or wrong) pathways.

She could be counted on, however, to throw out a little sage advice where appropriate.

One of my favorites (which I am known to share at any opportunity) was this:

More Hurry, Less Speed.

What she was saying, “in a nutshell” (another of her favorite expressions) was that anything worth doing was worth doing well and correctly, regardless of how long it might take. Going faster was often a recipe for a disastrous fallback.

Going faster at anything is often a good indication that there is more room for mistakes and poor judgments. There are more chances to slip and fall and backslide when speed is involved. Sloppy results were not something she acknowledged with a nod of approval.

Going faster might get it done quicker but, then again, it might not if speed leads to mistakes, errors, and the need to start over on a project and try again.

The old “slow but steady wins the race” (not original with my mother) was a philosophy she believed in.

Looking back, I must admit, my mother could see through the smog of BS pretty clearly. She knew how to get things done because she had to get things done. Survival depended on it. There were no options — no quick fixes — no fast tracks.

My mother’s wisdom lives on only in my heart and mind at this stage of my life. But it does stick with me.

Any time I feel like I am not progressing at whatever level I think I should, I take a step back and remember that I was raised by the best. She gave me the tools I needed to identify and cope with life’s challenges.

A fulfilling life lies in the journey itself, not in the destination.

More hurry, less speed — therein lies one important secret to a happy and successful life.

Those words came from a brilliant woman.

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