How slowing down can accelerate your progress

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hello friend, welcome to the audio visual version of the advice column newsletter, and I wanted to tell you today about the time I found myself strapped into the back right seat of a helicopter fuselage dangling from a crane over a deep water pool. My heart was beating at about 172 beats per minute and I was waiting for the whole thing, this whole helicopter fuselage that I was tied into, to be plunged into the water and then flipped upside down and from there I would try to escape. The leader of the mission that I was on at that time looked at me and the three other trainees who were all strapped into this fuselage, two of us facing the front, two of us facing the back, and pointed at each of us ready, ready, ready, ready. We looked at each other trying to convey as much reassurance as we could muster, but, being scared to death, we braced ourselves. The leader gave the go command and this fuselage plunged into the pool and began filling up with water as I'm strapped in. As the level of the water reached my chin, I took the biggest breath I possibly could and then I was underwater. The helicopter then kind of jolted as it stopped and then it rolled over and now I was upside down, boxed in, restrained, and the clock was ticking. I ran through the egress procedure that we had just been taught Wait for the aircraft to settle calmly, count to four, place right elbow on corner of window. Push with all might to force out grip window still continuously to keep bearings on where the exit is With left hand. Rotate harness on seat belt and cast away with force. Roll onto back and swim through window opening. Slow is fast, okay, my friend.

Speaker 1: 2:19

So the reason I found myself in that scenario this one that I had really almost had nightmares about and then put myself in was because I was doing a leadership training program at NASA in Houston, texas, and for several days a group of us in this group, called YPO, went through the same training that the astronauts do when they practice. What will happen when they return in the pod into the ocean when they're coming back from space? The whole idea of this short course was to learn leadership skills through a lot of the same training that they do. So this thing was called Hewitt helicopter underwater escape training and it was one of the exercises. I knew it was going to be safe because this was run by NASA and highly skilled facilitators. We had scuba divers in the pool with us in case anything went wrong. We had a trainer in the fuselage with us, people were monitoring every which way, but still my fear was getting the best of me. So it's one thing to know something intellectually, but it's another for me to feel safe emotionally, and my heart rate and my adrenaline were certainly telling me that I didn't feel safe.

Speaker 1: 3:44

But after a sleepless night debating, was I really going to do this thing? Because I thought to myself you know, I don't have to do this. This is a choice and I could choose not to participate and that would be okay. Or I could choose to participate because I have FOMO, but it would also push my comfort zone. But I tossed and turned, I did not sleep almost the whole night before worrying about it, and then I decided to go for it. And then I found myself submerged upside down in a three point harness inside a helicopter. I did elbow window press, hand harness release, swim and before you knew it I popped out and I was above the water. I could feel the cold air when I popped up and I just felt so exhilarated and proud, even though to a lot of people this might not have been a very big deal to me. It was huge. I looked around, and I saw each of my teammates heads pop out one after another afterwards, and we were all grinning and swaying together and high fived the way that you kind of can only bond when you've been really scared doing something together. So it was very cool. Confidence just surged through me as I felt proud that I'd pushed that comfort zone and lived. The experience made a big impression on me, though, and that's what I wanted to share.

Speaker 1: 5:08

A few thoughts, a few reflections. Number one I think being with others makes challenges for me easier and more rewarding. And then I reflect on how I sometimes feel alone, for getting that help is actually really close by. I've talked about that in a previous newsletter, but this was another example just remembering that there was all this support right there if I needed it. And I also was reminded how thrilling it is to challenge myself and expand my comfort zone, even in seemingly small ways like this. And then I kept thinking about the words that the instructor repeatedly emphasized when he was doing the training Slow is fast, slow is fast, slow is fast. And that's something that my mentor says a lot too. He'll say go slow to go fast.

Speaker 1: 6:03

So many times in life I feel like I have to hurry, I make decisions with a sense of urgency and I'm worrying that I'm losing time if I'm not actually in forward motion. But we learned in that Hewitt training that being calmer, slower and more deliberate actually saves time in the end, because we don't panic and get tangled in the seatbelt, forget to grip the window and lose our bearing on where the exit is, float away from our exit points and get kicked in the face by someone else who's scrambling to get out, or just waste time with ineffective movement. And I think that that's true for my life too, when I've taken time to slow down before I do something and actually make sure I'm not just doing something faster and more efficiently, but I'm doing the right thing first, that that has served me better than when I've followed my natural inclination to rush right in. So I wonder, as you reflect on your own life, are there areas where patience and deliberate decision making can lead you to more efficient and meaningful outcomes? I'm curious. And are there moments where you could slow down to actually move faster in the long run? If you think of some, I'd love to hear from you.

Speaker 1: 7:26

The print version of the newsletter you can subscribe at advicecolumncom forward slash, subscribe and reply to any of those emails and I'll get those. Or, if you want to email me at Lisa at advicecolumncom, I'd love to hear from you and hear about your reflections and I think on our blog we'll put a picture of this NASA underwater training center which, if you want to take a look at it, is really neat. They have a 30 million gallon pool with an entire replica of the space station so astronauts can suit up astronauts in training, I should say can suit up and go into this exact replica of the space station and practice their procedures and drills. I mean they have to suit up, put on a diaper and be under the water for about eight hours at a time training for their missions up there. But it's really something special to see all the effort that goes into exploration. Thank you so much for joining me on this adventure of self discovery and I look forward to continued exploration with you. I'll see you in the next episode. Bye.