Recently I heard Jensen Huang, CEO of one of the world’s most valuable companies, Nvidia, share the best career advice he received. It came in an unexpected way from a gardener at the world’s biggest moss garden in Kyoto when Jensen was a teenager.
The garden is huge, and the gardener was on his knees with a tiny basket and a small instrument, tending to a bush. Jensen asked him how long he’d worked there: 30 years was the answer. “How can you take care of such a big place with such a small basket and a small instrument?”
“I got time,” the gardener answered.
That really landed with me.
Intensity often comes with a sense of urgency. I need to respond to this email now. I need to get promoted this year. I feel this urgency in my clients. I recognize it in myself.
Sometimes, this urgency is important. And sometimes it gets us into tunnel vision. It takes us away from a bigger purpose, as well as from noticing opportunities which are around us here, now.
When I reflect back on my own 25-year career in the city, I know that one thing that slowed me down the most was the sense of urgency during my earlier stages of the journey. I remember being an Associate, keen to get promoted to VP a year earlier, switching teams away from a manager who supported and respected me because the grass looked greener.
Needless to say, it backfired. It’s difficult to see it in the moment, because that year seems so important.
Next time you feel a sense of urgency to respond, push for that promotion, or chase that client, ask yourself: What if I create the space to slow down, to notice what is already here now, and direct the energy to an opportunity I might have not noticed before?
Approach as if you had all the time in the world, and see magic unfold.
That is what healthy intensity is—it’s the ability to hold both things as true: laser sharp focus, and the ability to see with peripheral vision. And the secret is to slow down to notice.
Before you change direction, take a moment to check whether it’s aligned with your longer-term vision or coming from the dopamine rush and urgency of the moment.
Is urgency really serving me and my vision right now?
If after slowing down, the answer is still yes, go for it.