The secret to being better at anything

Want to know the secret to being better at anything?

Don’t hurry.

Before you dismiss this idea as silly, hear me out. Hurry should not be confused with speed, which is moving fast. Moving fast is sometimes necessary, especially when brain-eating zombies are chasing you.

Hurry robs you of time.

When you hurry, you make mistakes. You forget things like keys, phones, lunches, trumpets, your kid, your groceries, and more. You make mistakes and mess things up like breakfast. Trust me, I know. I learned the hard way.

You can’t hurry scrambled eggs.

Eggs made in a hurry taste horrible and my family refuses to eat dry, flaky eggs. James tells me that I am the most horrible egg maker in the world. Rob agrees with James (Beck really doesn’t care how awful the eggs tasted, he just wants to eat the eggs.)

If two people in your family say your scrambled eggs suck, you need to think about changing something.

“What am I doing wrong?” I asked Rob. He told me that it’s not so much that I’m in a hurry, but that I’m not present when I make scrambled eggs: I don’t stay focused on the task.

“Oh please,” I said, ready to dismiss his comment with a fling of my spatula, while at the same time I visualized all the other things I do while waiting for the eggs to hurry up and cook. I put dishes away, tidy up the kitchen, check email, feed the dog, or do a myriad of other tasks to keep my life moving forward.

By hurrying scrambled eggs that my family refuses to choke down, I create waste and add time to my already tight morning schedule. Multi-tasking, isn’t always a good skill to possess, especially when making scrambled eggs.

The opposite of hurry is slow down.

I’ve found that the more I can pace myself in making scrambled eggs: staying with the eggs and gently fluffing them as they cook, the more I improved in making better scrambled eggs. I also found that I gained time by not having to make another breakfast, and saved money by not tossing a few good, organic (and expensive) eggs in the garbage.

My scrambled eggs are still a work in progress, but I’ll keep at it.

What’s your hurry?

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