We've got slow food. How about slow work?
Are you familiar with the slow food movement? It was founded in response to the largest McDonalds going in at the Piazza di Spagna in Rome. This was 1986.
Intended to retain and nurture a culture of good wholesome food in a world moving towards fast, generic food, it is also for the privileged. The privileged of time and means to consider quality food and dine slowly, savoring every morsel.
Most of us are just trying to make ends meet. Families are schlepping between work, school and sports for their kids. It's enough just to get any kind of dinner on the table. Let alone lunch. Fast food is fast for a reason. Fast society demands it. Fast food is for us what the gas station is for your car. A fuel stop.
Meeting all of the 'requirements' for slow food takes work. It's a job in itself. Who's got time for that?
Most of can choose how we live if we pause to think about it. We can choose to fill our bodies with nourishing food that fuels are brains which fuels our creativity which fuels our work. Or we can eat crap and not have the mental energy to think.
Years ago I ate poorly. Several diet cokes and peanut M&Ms for lunch. On top of a lot of coffee. I also had month-long annual colds that came like they were pre-scheduled. I’ve long moved to healthy eating and no longer (okay rarely) get sick. More focus on health got me sleeping well. Now I think better. Infinitely less tired mid-day. Less cranky. Calmer and more focused.
So why this talk about food instead of work?
With the notion that the Slow Food movement is designed to preserve the craft and value of good food, how about a Slow Work movement?
Did I just make your eyes roll?
Stay with me for a moment.
Most of you reading this are likely thinking about the work you do and desire to make some changes. Whether that's to add additional income streams, reboot your career or find financial freedom, you're not content resting on your laurels.
Maybe you're tired of pushing emails all day without feeling a sense of purpose. Or maybe you're tired of racing between home and kids and work and home again only to rinse and repeat.
It takes a nanosecond on Google to discover there are oodles of people peddling passive income opportunities. or easy riches in real estate. Or how about 'earn six figures teaching your passion in 5 easy steps? With no audience!' For those desperate for a change or desperate to reboot their income the sales copy can be pretty enticing.
The 'zero audience' line is particularly egregious. We all start from zero. The catch is it takes a lot of consistent work to grow an audience. The concept is simple, but it's not easy.
What's missing from all of this is that you still may find yourself adrift. Flitting from opportunity to opportunity without seeing the promised success. You might find yourself feeling left behind by all the hustlers racing for the top, pushing yourself to go faster. Do more! Don't quit! And then you get discouraged. The cycle repeats.
What's also missing is defining your purpose (yes, we’re back to purpose). It's getting to know yourself well enough to know what you really want. How do you want to live your life? How do you want to work? What's your craft? What gives you energy and what depletes it? And creating something that creates WOW and DELIGHT for others.
When building an audience, the first audience is you. You're the toughest. You have to be willing to sit with discomfort. With what you don't know. You have invite curiosity to the party.
Think about guitar makers like Portland’s Koll Guitars? Or Singer Vehicle Design who restores old Porsches. Or how about Ratio Coffee that makes some of the most beautiful coffee makers around? All of these are about slowing down and appreciating quality. They know what they’re about and what they’re for.
I know that Singer is out of reach for most of us. But hopefully you get the concept of slowing down the work. And the importance of knowing what you're all about. Or maybe you’d want to work there?
The side hustle treadmill is still a treadmill. I'm suggesting the concept Slow Work as the antithesis of a treadmill. It's a chance to breathe and create more than a soundbite.
Slow Work isn't an excuse to be lazy or flaky. Or to renege on commitments to customers. Or be perfectionistic. Or procrastinate.
It's about doing more by doing less. Inspiration versus desperation. Living fully over merely existing.
Most of all, it's about doing the work that the world needs most from you. What might that be?
This isn't a map to just connect the dots. But a way of changing how we think about work. By making work work for you and not against you.
I hear this in my mind and I know it sounds lofty. Pretentious. Yes, there's privilege here. When you're desperate, it's hard to think of anything but where your next buck is coming from. I've been there. It's not fun. Sometimes that forces us to dig deeper and create. Depends on how you're wired.
This is a mindset. One you need to cultivate.
I read a post recently by an individual who retired from a low-paying University job and still needs to work. This person is looking for business ideas that aren't intimidating or overly risky for a beginner, nor take a lot of time. And has also tried several different programs, all of which didn't pan out. He admits that fear is one of his biggest obstacles. I think it is for so many trodding into the unknown. He's intimidated by those he sees online with large cushions, experience and hustle.
It's that frenzy that keeps a lot of us from pursuing an idea. That and our healthcare system, of course.
Slow Work doesn't have to mean quitting your job. Maybe you can reframe your current role and invite your colleagues onto the bus. As a concept, you get to create your own definition of what it means to work slowly. The pace will vary from person to person. In terms of a large company, I sense that Pategonia may be such a company that embodies slow-work values.