A man in Silicon Valley known to grit his teeth and multitask through everything shut his phone off a moment before the meeting started.  A woman on the East Coast relaxed, slowed down and took her time getting her ideas across. A usually distracted woman in Europe in yet another meeting was fully present, focused, giving 100% of her attention.  In India, a man who talks too fast, in a different meeting, took his time, spoke clearly and paused throughout to let his ideas fully resonate. They all paid attention when others were speaking and took time to reflect on what was said.

They were all in different meetings, but what they all had in common was their decision to participate, along with hundreds of others in their company, in the Slow Down Challenge Day sponsored by a group of individuals who have taken our workshops.  Not everyone was a graduate, it was open to all, and many who had never even heard of our courses wanted to be counted in when they heard about it.

I dreamed up Challenge Days in response to requests for ways to keep skills sharp.  A Communication Challenge Day is a day during which you accept the challenge to focus on 1 aspect of communication excellence for the entire day.  It’s not a special meeting, it’s the way you choose to live your life for one whole day.  Both at work and at home.

Each Challenge Day has a different theme.

For this Challenge Day we picked the theme of “SLOW DOWN” because, as everyone races through their busy lives, it’s the one thing people the world over are NOT doing, and it’s also the one thing people tell me they know they NEED to do.  

Challenge Days are as much an experiment as a challenge.  We never know what’s going to happen when hundreds of people try something for one day, each independently in their own lives.

This time we wanted to see what happens when you dedicate yourself to going slow enough to concentrate on the QUALITY (instead of the speed) of EVERY one of your conversations that you have for one whole day.

The Challenge was to slow down and be present.  Slow down and focus on the other person.  Slow down when you’re speaking so others can really absorb your message.  And when you’re listening, slow down and really hear and reflect on what they’re telling you.  In other words:  SLOW DOWN … just for a day.

This is different from “taking time off”.  You’re still there.  Just not racing through it.  You’re going comfortably slow and experiencing it all, taking it all in.  Not too slow, but slow enough to create real quality.

This is a large corporation where we did it last, and people from all over the world participated, so we had many nations and cultures represented.  They filled out a survey afterward to get their certificates, allowing us to see whether or not living life this way makes a difference.

I’m sharing the results with you because I think they will inspire you.  There were too many successes to adequately represent them here.  This is just a taste of what they wrote.  Amazing how universal the results were. 

Here are the numbers:

• 100% of the participants said it had a positive impact on their conversations and relationships

• 92% said it improved productivity

• 83% said they experienced deeper human connections

• 75% said it had a positive impact on their team

• 100% said it had a positive impact in their personal lives

• 100% said they would take what they learned and use it in their future conversations

Here is what they said:

• “By slowing down my words became valuable.”

• “I sounded more credible and it improved my influencing abilities.”

• ”It created a quicker path to taking action and moving forward.”

• “We were intensely efficient.”

• “It led to a discussion rather than an argument.”

• “We all began to communicate more freely.”

• “I got the buy-in from my team more easily.”

• “Telling myself to slow down and take a breath helped ME!”

• “My daughter responded differently.”

• “I experienced peace of mind and satisfaction.”

• “Feels great to slow down.”

• “It’s healthier for my blood pressure, too.”

• “It Works!”

These results are quite staggering when you think about it.

Very simply, what hundreds of individuals told us is that slowing down creates higher quality and more meaningful conversations and relationships.  These easily lead to amazing outcomes.

Slowing down.  Something everyone “knows”.  And hardly anyone does.  Does anyone anymore?

What do you think doing this, even for just one day, could create in your life?

The only way to find out is to try it. Try it so you can fully experience your own life and the beauty in each moment, something you never see if you’re racing from one moment to the next.

It’s extraordinary when you take one principle such as this and apply it for a whole day.  The day when you don’t let the world distract you from being fully present.  It becomes a day like no other.

The best word for it is “magic.”

You can totally try this.  Choose a day.  Slow down. Then tell me what happens.

Be the cause!