{"id":32184,"date":"2023-04-03T15:07:49","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T22:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=32184"},"modified":"2023-04-09T23:14:20","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T06:14:20","slug":"pay-attention-slow-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/pay-attention-slow-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Pay Attention. Slow Down."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBe still and know that I am God\u201d Psalm 46:10<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s an open secret among our church staff that if you\u2019re in the car when I\u2019m driving, you are taking your life into your own hands. My wife tells me it\u2019s not because I\u2019m a bad driver, but because I am a fast driver. My best friend tells me that when he rides with me, he grows closer to Jesus.<\/p>\n

I do everything fast. I eat fast, I talk fast, and I try to solve problems fast. I walk through an airport faster than anyone I know. I prefer to operate at 30,000 feet because being at ground level means I am getting stuck on details, and I hate getting stuck on details, partly because too often, too many details slow things down.<\/p>\n

People who know me well might guess that my motto is \u201cmove fast and break things\u201d; they wouldn\u2019t be far off the mark.<\/p>\n

Moving quickly through life has a lot of advantages, but one of the major disadvantages to operating that way is that being a non-anxious presence and being self-aware can be difficult to accomplish when you\u2019re moving at 100 miles a second.<\/p>\n

Edwin Friedman\u2019s book A Failure of Nerve[1]<\/strong><\/a> <\/em>pointed out the need for a non-anxious presence. In his book, Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long[2]<\/strong><\/a>, <\/em>DavidRock points out how, by paying attention to your brain, you can grow more mindful to the present, and become a non-anxious presence.<\/p>\n

PAY. ATTENTION.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s my two-word summary of the entire book. When we pay attention to the kind of work we are doing, we can make sure we have the mental resources to make our best contribution. When we pay attention to our dopamine and adrenaline levels, we can regulate them to our advantage. When we pay attention to our emotional responses, we can label them or reappraise them, taking some of their power away from us. When we pay attention to how others might respond, we can approach collaborative or social situations more mindfully, and help set others up for success.<\/p>\n

When we pay attention to our own lives, Brock suggests, we step into the role of the director, making intentional decisions about what we want to do, instead of being driven along by emotion, or expectation, or instinct. A big part of becoming that director includes slowing down, which brings me to the two-word summary of my biggest personal takeaway from this book.<\/p>\n

SLOW. DOWN.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As you might be able to tell from the opening of this blog post, I am happy with my ability to go fast. Even though I know moving fast breaks things, I have a bias for action, not for deliberation.<\/p>\n

But for the last few years, I have been learning to slow down. And over this semester I have been reminded repeatedly that good decisions and creative insights involve slower thinking (Kahneman[3]<\/a>, and Duffy[4]<\/a>), and stepping away from the urgency of life (Kleon[5]<\/a>, and Campbell[6]<\/a>), and paying closer attention to God\u2019s work in yourself and others (Comacho[7]<\/a>, and Poole[8]<\/a>).<\/p>\n

A few years ago, the Lord led me to re-inhabit a principle that I\u2019d long ignored; this practice has helped me slow down and pay attention: It\u2019s the priority of Sabbath.<\/p>\n

When I\u2019m approaching Sabbath well, I get to be mindful for a whole day. Without the distraction of social media, or the news, or work that needs to get done. I literally stop, and rest, not only from my labor, but also from any effort that would require my analyzing, or making connections, or even being creative.<\/p>\n

In Sabbath, I am invited to enjoy relationship with my God and my family and my friends. I am welcomed into a day where I get to fully celebrate \u201csitting on the edge of a jetty in summer, a nice breeze blowing in [my] hair, and a cold beer in [my] hand,\u201d[9]<\/a> and nothing else.<\/p>\n

Sabbath, when lived well, is a gift from God that resets my spirit and my mind. It helps this driven man to be still and recognize God\u2019s presence in the world, and in myself. Honestly, I get my Sabbath wrong far more than I get it right. But I\u2019m finding that week after week it\u2019s my approach to it, more than the perfect execution of it, that changes the way I think and the way I live, and it gives me a weekly reminder to always<\/strong><\/em> look for opportunities to slow down, and to pay attention.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Edmund Friedman, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix <\/em>(New York: Church Publishing, 2017). \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> David Rock, Your Brain At Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long<\/em> (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2020),<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast, and Slow<\/em> (New York: Sarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013).<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Bobby Duffy, Why We\u2019re Wrong about Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding<\/em> (New York: Basic Books, 2019).<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You about Being Creative<\/em> (New York: Workman Pub. Co, 2012).<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em> (Novato, CA: New World Library, 1949).<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Tom Comacho, Mining for Gold: Developing Kingdom Leaders through Coaching<\/em> (London: InterVarsity Press, 2019).<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Eve Poole, Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership<\/em> (New York: Bloomsbury Business, 2017).<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Rock, Your Brain At Work<\/em>, 92.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBe still and know that I am God\u201d Psalm 46:10 It\u2019s an open secret among our church staff that if you\u2019re in the car when I\u2019m driving, you are taking your life into your own hands. My wife tells me it\u2019s not because I\u2019m a bad driver, but because I am a fast driver. My […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":169,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2489,2681],"class_list":["post-32184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp02","tag-rock","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32184"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32289,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32184\/revisions\/32289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}