The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down
Highlights from The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down that I want to remember when busy life returns.
Tags
Books
View allThe Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts
This book feels different. Not because it gives answers, but because it creates space to observe how I think.
Meditations
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
The Art of Thinking Clearly
The Courage to Be Disliked – Book
The idea of separation of tasks helped me see what is truly mine to carry, and what is not.
The People Part
This book is now officially part of my leadership transformation journey.
life
View allMasterly Inactivity
During recovery, I learned that not every problem needs another action. Sometimes the wiser choice is to create the right conditions, wait, and know when enough has already been done.
Bless You
A simple “bless you” followed me from a part-time job in the UK into my marriage, and eventually to a hospital bed. I learned that after we have done everything within our influence, sometimes all that remains is to wish something good for someone.
Fine Dining
Fine dining taught me something I didn’t expect. What made those meals memorable wasn’t the luxury or even the taste. It was the time we gave to them—the space between courses, the conversations, and the person sitting across from me. Maybe the finest ingredient was never on the plate.
Are We the Warden or the Prisoner?
I thought freedom meant having the keys and being able to leave whenever I wanted. During recovery, I began to wonder whether the life I had built for freedom had quietly become the walls around it.
63 Days in the Valley of Darkness
For 63 days, recovery taught me what I had understood but never truly lived: everything changes, not everything is within my control, and sometimes the only way forward is to accept what has already happened. This is a note to my future self about impermanence, surrender, and simply being.
Why Does a Chicken, I Don’t Know Why
A line from a Pooh song, and what changed when I stopped needing to know why.
Emotions Are Private
During recovery, I learned that emotions consume energy too. I had been giving other people almost direct access to what happened inside me. Maybe emotions deserve a boundary—not suppression, but protection.
Reflection
View allMasterly Inactivity
During recovery, I learned that not every problem needs another action. Sometimes the wiser choice is to create the right conditions, wait, and know when enough has already been done.
Bless You
A simple “bless you” followed me from a part-time job in the UK into my marriage, and eventually to a hospital bed. I learned that after we have done everything within our influence, sometimes all that remains is to wish something good for someone.
Fine Dining
Fine dining taught me something I didn’t expect. What made those meals memorable wasn’t the luxury or even the taste. It was the time we gave to them—the space between courses, the conversations, and the person sitting across from me. Maybe the finest ingredient was never on the plate.
Why Does a Chicken, I Don’t Know Why
A line from a Pooh song, and what changed when I stopped needing to know why.
Emotions Are Private
During recovery, I learned that emotions consume energy too. I had been giving other people almost direct access to what happened inside me. Maybe emotions deserve a boundary—not suppression, but protection.
What Is Beyond?
I spent much of my life asking what was beyond the next achievement, experience, or stage.
Illness showed me another kind of beyond—and made the present moment feel enough.
The Hamster Wheel
Almost everything I did had to lead somewhere else—work, exercise, travel, even rest. Recovery made me see the hamster wheel, and remember that some things can simply end in themselves.
Recovery
View allMasterly Inactivity
During recovery, I learned that not every problem needs another action. Sometimes the wiser choice is to create the right conditions, wait, and know when enough has already been done.
Bless You
A simple “bless you” followed me from a part-time job in the UK into my marriage, and eventually to a hospital bed. I learned that after we have done everything within our influence, sometimes all that remains is to wish something good for someone.
Why Does a Chicken, I Don’t Know Why
A line from a Pooh song, and what changed when I stopped needing to know why.
Emotions Are Private
During recovery, I learned that emotions consume energy too. I had been giving other people almost direct access to what happened inside me. Maybe emotions deserve a boundary—not suppression, but protection.
What Is Beyond?
I spent much of my life asking what was beyond the next achievement, experience, or stage.
Illness showed me another kind of beyond—and made the present moment feel enough.
The Hamster Wheel
Almost everything I did had to lead somewhere else—work, exercise, travel, even rest. Recovery made me see the hamster wheel, and remember that some things can simply end in themselves.
Complex vs. Complicated
I had been treating complex life problems as complicated problems—believing that if I understood enough variables, I could control the outcome. Recovery taught me that sometimes, the boundary moves.