There is a guy I follow over on LinkedIn, Barden Smedberg, and he had this to share in a post this morning which I found incredibly through provoking. Especially since I’m usually the one going too fast through the yellow light!
What do most people do at a yellow light?
They hit the gas!
In business, in relationships, and in life.
We see a warning, and instead of pausing, we accelerate!
Years ago, we were chasing a business deal as the economy slowed and we needed the revenue. There were warning signs. The kind of yellow lights you see, but choose to ignore.
And like many people under pressure, we sped through!
This doesn’t just happen in business. We do it in relationships. We do it in life decisions where the clock seems louder than our intuition. The common denominator is often Time Pressure. Whether real or imagined, it short-circuits our wisdom.
We may think we have emotional intelligence, IQ, resilience, self-awareness, common sense or whatever you call it! But too often, none of it matters when we’re moving too fast to use it.
So how do we pause at yellow lights instead of blowing through them?
We build Process Time into our decision making. Not to be slow. But to be strategic:
🧠 Envision likely scenarios
🧠 Picture the rewards and or the consequences to be avoided
🧠 Build in contingency
🧠 Run cost-benefit drills before the adrenaline kicks in
🧠 Practice slowing down when things feel urgent
There’s some really good stuff to chew on in that post!