Be quick, but don't hurry

John Wooden was the most successful Men’s College Basketball coach in history, and he would begin each new season by teaching his players how to put on their socks and shoes.

It was his way of setting extremely clear expectations and values from the first minutes. He wanted to make it known that there is real value in taking care of the small things. Wooden would show these young men how to smooth out their socks properly to avoid wrinkles. Then he’d show them how to lace their shoes correctly. His belief was that a single wrinkle could cause a blister, and a blister could affect how a player moved, trained, or performed, perhaps even leading to injury. His mantra was to get the basics right before anything else, because big problems often begin as small things ignored.

Be quick, but don’t hurry.

We need to slow down. This idea has been on my mind a lot recently, as I manage my own frantic lifestyle juggling several projects and occasionally falling into the trap of rushing. Add to that the wild start to 2026 (how are we already wrapping up Q1?!) and it’s a messy concoction at times.

For many of us, it feels like everything is happening at once. Work is relentless and family needs are real. Meanwhile the inbox is breeding and the news borders on terrifying. The pressure to keep up, stay sharp, be present, perform well, and somehow also look after ourselves can feel like a ridiculous ask. It’s not just that we are busy. It is that everything feels urgent, and when everything feels urgent, we start to hurry through our lives.

Rushing is different from moving quickly. When we rush, there’s a frantic quality to it, driven by emotions, scattered thoughts, perhaps a bit of sloppiness. Ultimately it tricks us into believing that the more speed we apply, the more control we have. But that ain’t true! The more we hurry, the more mistakes we make.

Wooden had a famous line worth remembering, which I’m sure had something to do with his winning stats: be quick, but don’t hurry.

He coached fast, disciplined basketball. He wanted sharp movement, clear execution, and intensity. But he also knew that panic ruins performance. The key is to act with urgency without letting urgency take over. That was the difference he cared about. That comes from being prepared.

So many of us are chasing outcomes all day long. Launch the project. Clear the list. Make the sale. Get to Friday (sadly). And while outcomes matter, they can also become overwhelming when they’re all we see. Wooden’s philosophy pulled people back to something steadier. The power of preparation so that we can execute without drama.

Focus on the fundamentals because reduction helps us return to the basics. It helps us steady the breath, narrow the frame, and re-engage with what is actually in front of us.

Wooden was doing this with the socks and shoes. He was reminding people that when pressure rises, fundamentals matter more than we think.

Here are three simple tools we can borrow from that idea:

1. Smooth the sock.
   Before we throw ourselves at the whole day, remove one small point of friction. We need to ask ourself what is rubbing unnecessarily right now. It could be a cluttered workspace, the hit of cortisol when we check our phone first thing, clear priorities, or several other things. These things look minor, but they create drag. And drag adds up. We often think resilience requires huge acts of endurance, but sometimes it begins with preventing the blister. We need to reduce the irritation before it becomes an injury.

2. Play fast, not frantic.
   It pays dividends to notice the difference between purposeful movement and emotional rushing. Fast is clean. Fast can still breathe. Frantic is scattered and twitchy. It jumps between tabs, tasks, conversations, and worries, all while calling it productivity. When we feel ourselves speeding up internally, pause and ask: am I moving with purpose, or am I performing stress? Abraham Lincoln has a brilliant quote that reminds me of this: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Again, a great metaphor for the value of conscious preparation. Slow down and stop confusing panic with performance.

3. Judge the rep, not the scoreboard.

   This is the one I think many of us need most. When life is heavy, outcomes become too large to carry all at once. The project is too big. The family challenge is too big. The uncertainty is too big. So instead of measuring ourselves only against the final result, come back to the quality of the rep in front of us. Did we prepare well? Did we stay grounded? Did we keep our standards, even if the wider result is still unfolding? Scoreboards matter, but they are lagging indicators. The rep is where life is actually lived. Like Stephen King, let’s focus on the reps.

When things feel overwhelming, the last thing we need is more. Forget more motivation or more intensity and focus on less. Less noise. Less drama. Less fixation on outcomes we cannot instantly control. Ironically, the less things we chase, the more clarity, steadiness steadiness and respect for the fundamentals we gain. That’ll keep us grounded when everything else is trying to pull us out of shape.

The way we handle small things under pressure says a lot about how we will handle the big ones. And please remember that reduction is not about retreat or giving up. Instead, it’s the discipline of coming back to what matters most when everything else is fighting for our attention.

All we need is the next right rep over emotional chaos. And, in the wild world of 2026, that might just be one of the most resilient things we can do.

Until next time friends, stay resilient.

Carré at Resilient Minds