5%
I eat fast.
Like a street dog guarding its food.
I walk fast, with a sense of purpose.
Even when there’s nowhere to go.
Some people live a slow life. Painfully slow.
They blink slowly. Talk slowly. Move slowly.
It drives me crazy.
But what if they’re right?
Growing up in Buenos Aires, I never questioned the pace.
It felt normal. But normal isn’t always right.
People walk like they’re running late.
Even the air feels impatient.
Every place has its own tempo.
In big cities, people move faster. It’s proven.
Speed becomes a habit you don’t question.
But speed isn’t the same as direction.
A flight from New York to London spans 3,500 miles.
If the pilot is 5 degrees off course, the plane doesn’t land in London.
It lands in Lisbon.
1,000 miles away.
Small errors in direction compound exponentially.
They don’t take you slightly off track.
They take you somewhere else entirely.
For the first time in my life, I stopped to ask where I’m going.
Not just how fast I’m getting there.
What if I’m moving at full speed but in the wrong direction?
What if slowing down is my chance to course-correct?
But how?
Nobody tells you how.
Meditation, journaling, yoga.
The promise of mindfulness becomes a task.
It helps, until it doesn’t.
I need to change my mind.
A steady drip of consciousness that keeps me awake to life.
What if I slowed everything down 5%?
Not 50%. Not 25%.
Just 5.
Not to calm myself down, but to save my life from going somewhere I don’t want to be.
Slowing down isn’t just about speed. It’s about creating space.
Space to think, to choose, to be.
Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
Viktor Frankl.
5% is a slower breath.
It’s the pause between bites.
The quiet moment before you answer.
It’s writing your name slowly, feeling the pen over the paper.
It’s staring at your coffee as it cools.
It takes no more than 5%.
It’s the manual override.
Your chance to reprogram your brain.
Stop.
Lift your head. Look around.
Are you happy with where you’re going?
Yes? Then keep going.
No? Now you know.
Until you make the unconscious conscious,
it will direct your life,
and you will call it fate.
Carl Jung.
I’ve stopped running toward nowhere.
Now, I see the next step ahead.
Do you see yours?