The rabbit is the tortoise

When the intensity to do something doesn’t last.

Reading time: Approx. 09:00 Mins | Subject: Mindfulness

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The intensity always tempts people to do something they have never done before.

• Going on a vacation with excitement.

• Participating in a new product launch.

• Buying a new house with hope.

• Giving birth to a new child with pain. 

All these situations allow you to feel the emotions that keep you in the air. 

The intensity behind them is huge and breathtaking, and we lose control of our ideal selves. 

We become so engulfed in the situation that nothing else matters other than what is in front of us.

However, how are you going to enjoy the vacation once it has started? 

• The product has been launched; how are you going to make sure that it meets people’s expectations?

• The house is yours now; how are you going to spend your life in it?

• The baby is home now; how are you going to take care of it?

To have these, you’ve used intensity, but to live them, you cannot use it. 

If you’re going to be so intense about your vacation, how are you going to enjoy its different phases? 

Customer support is a longer-term game; with intensity, you’ll burn out.

To spend the rest of your life in a beautiful house, you need to make time for it; with intensity, you cannot do it. 

And the baby is going to take years to grow; with intensity, you’ll always see the innocent creature. 

This simply means the intensity is not enough because all the important things are supposed to be accomplished or continued through slowness. 

• Docking a shuttle in space or catching the rocket back

• Continuing the race

• Pouring juice out of a mixer

All these started with intensity but in order to finish them, stillness is needed.

And if you're feeling like nothing's working out in your life, it is also because of this. You're looking for the intensity. You're looking for the thrill, which cannot stay for longer. 

Moreover, if somehow you're able to keep that in your lifestyle, then know this: it won't help you for longer, just like the rabbit in the race. 

Let's see how intensity alone is not good for anything.

Why will intensity let you down? 

With intensity, you can mean motivation. For many, in order to start something, it's essential; however, relying on it completely will be a strategy to fail because motivation doesn't last. 

Additionally, why intensity is inevitable to failure because of the following:

1 - Limited resources 

What happens when you drive a car at full speed? 

Its fuel ends quickly, and it shifts into reserves, which makes it even harder to continue the journey.

When we are intense about something, we drive ourselves at full speed, and soon, we eat up all of our energy for the day. Then, we drag ourselves to finish the day, which takes the energy we have for relaxation–the reserves. 

We all have limited resources, whether in our bodies or the outside world. 

When we use intensity, we don’t pay attention to that limit; hence, we end up exhausting ourselves in many ways.

That’s why going with intensity forever doesn’t work.

2 - Everything’s meant to break

The strongest element is Tungsten, which has a tensile strength of approximately 1510 MPa and a Mohs hardness rating of 9, indicating its ability to resist scratching and deformation. It can survive up to 3,422 °C (6,192 °F) and a boiling point of 5,930 °C (10,706 °F), where iron easily becomes a liquid.

You can put pressures up to 364 gigapascals into it, and it can make out it where materials like those used in fighter helicopters, such as the Apache, may experience deformation under different conditions.

Still, it breaks.

When we use intensity, we become intense like tungsten and highly susceptible to break. Actually, we are not tungsten; we are human, and we are supposed to break more often than anything.

In general, we are like a rubber that changes its form based on the conditions. 

However, there are more chances to break it when it’s hard–like a rubber pipe, which is good to use when it's flexible.

3. With speed you miss

If you’re driving your car at full speed, you’re going to miss the view. 

This simply means if you’re working on something crucial with intensity, you’re going to miss the view–the details. 

And if you’re missing the details, you’re missing the whole point of working on something. 

By missing details, you might be able to create something or finish it, but it won’t be of quality. 

It might serve the purpose of creating, but it won’t generate tangible results. 

You’ll be able to release the movie in the theatres, but it won’t run for long.

4. Intensity craves rewards

Did you ever notice that whenever you were in a hurry, you were always seeking something?

For example, you were hurrying to leave the house, and you were seeking to reach whatever destination you were going to. If something created a hindrance, it bothered you. 

If you ever felt something like that, then it’s all because of intensity. 

With intensity, everything happens at speed, and if something’s happening at speed, we expect the results or rewards in speed as well. 

However, that’s not true/possible with long-term goals or real-life changes.

You can show intensity when hitting the gym, but the results will take time. 

You can show the intensity needed to finish your project, but actually making an impact will take time. But intensity clouds our minds, and when we don’t see results or rewards in real-time, we quit.

We go for something else; we use our intensity, and when there are no rewards with speed, we quit again.

In this way, the cycle repeats itself till we are no longer able to do something.

5. In the end, it feels empty

For instance, imagine this: your life is full of rush. 

You wake up in the morning with intensity, cook your breakfast with intensity, and even eat it with intensity. Then, you rush to your workplace with intensity, talk to your colleagues with intensity, crush the projects with intensity, go home with intensity, and repeat this every day for the rest of your life.

How does it feel?

It feels empty, right? Your life just passed in seconds. Even though you did everything meaningful, they still don’t feel meaningful. 

Because there was not a single moment in which you paused and reflected on your life. 

There was not a moment when you enjoyed the journey. Instead, you were worried or anxious about reaching your destination, which, in the first place, never arrives.

The journey is important, but the intensity never lets you live it.

A life worth living requires stillness with intensity

By all of the above it doesn’t mean intensity is not helpful, but what it means is that intensity is the half battle. It’s needed to propel you, but to land, you need slowness. You need to be slower than a turtle.

→ With stillness, you can refill the resources before exhaustion. 

→ Everything’s meant to break, but with stillness, you can delay the breakpoint.

→ With stillness, you can focus on the details.

→ Intensity does everything in speed, but with stillness, you can build a habit of seeking rewards with enough time given.

→ The joy will always be there:

• Because of the slowness, you can see your mistakes and learn from them.

• With slowness, you can be a part of different communities.

• You can lift up others.

• You can build a world where life will be worth living.

Intensity + Stillness = makes a sensible life. 

But how could one do that? It’s possible, let’s see how.

How to create a balance of Intensity and Stillness/Slowness