Are you always rushing, busy, distracted? Do you yearn to slow down?
If so, then you’ve come to the right place!
I have distilled everything I know about slowing down into 50 simple tips to help you thrive in the modern world. Choose the tips that work for you and tailor them to fit your life.
The truth is that it is possible to slow down in a fast world. And not only is it possible, it is the best thing you will ever do for yourself and the people around you.
Slowing down can make you:
CALMER
More FOCUSED
HAPPIER
More EFFICIENT
HEALTHIER
More PRODUCTIVE
More CREATIVE
More PRESENT
Slowing down can unleash a better you at work, at home and everywhere in between. In a world addicted to speed, slowness is a superpower.
So, what are you waiting for? Grab your copy of Slower today….
And always remember the words of Mae West:
“Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.”
NB: Slower is available worldwide as a paperback or an e-book .
“Mr. Honoré has a winning style and an infectious curiosity about the minutiae of other people’s lives.” – Wall Street Journal
“Accessible, lucid and wise, this book should sit in every government and managerial office.” – The Independent (UK)
“Honoré is a skilled journalist, well aware of the virtues of brevity in relating an anecdote or setting a scene or making a point. The narrative never bogs down.” – National Post (Canada)
It’s about finding the best way to tackle complex problems in every walk of life, from health and relationships to business and politics. Our addiction to superficial, short-term quick fixes is backfiring badly in so many ways. This book explores how to start forging solutions that work both now and in the long term. I call this approach the “Slow Fix.”
Is the book a manual for problem-solving
Yes, it is, but also much more. On one hand, the book uses lots of fascinating case studies and first-hand reporting from around the world to show how to tackle hard problems intelligently and thoroughly. But THE SLOW FIX is also a philosophy of life. If we slow down, if we learn to do everything as well (rather than as fast) as possible, we can not only solve problems, work smarter and live better. We can also create a better world.
When the world is so fast can we really afford to take a slow fix approach?
Absolutely. In fact, I would argue that we cannot afford not to. People often say there is not enough time or money for anything other than a quick fix. Yet we always seem to have enough time to pick up the pieces when our quick fix goes wrong later. And we usually find the money to clean up the mess, too. What I’m proposing is that we reverse that equation and start investing the time, energy and resources now in order to come up with solutions that actually work. That way we save ourselves a lot of time, money and grief in the future.
Who is your target audience?
Anyone who wants to tackle a difficult problem. It could be something at work or in a relationship. Or it might be a global challenge such as poverty or the environment. Though it may sound grandiloquent, the The Slow Fix is also meant to be a handbook for making the world a better place. In short, it has something for everyone.
What was it like to write this book?
Very painful! At the start I had no idea where I’d end up. A clear vision eventually bubbled up from the research but there was a long time when I felt like I was groping around in the dark. (Learning to live with that kind of uncertainty is actually one ingredient of the Slow Fix.)
So you did lots of research?
Loads! My approach was to travel round the world investigating successful problem-solving in situ. So I traveled the world to spend time with :
A coffee grower in Costa Rica ☕️
Teachers and students at a school in a gang-infested corner of Los Angeles ?
A Formula One pit crew ?
Companies that rowed back from the brink of collapse ?
Prisoners in a state-of-the-art Norwegian jail ?
Therapists helping couples and families rebuild broken relationships ????
Anti-poverty campaigners in New York ?
A mayor who revolutionised public transport in Bogotá ?
Fighter pilots in Britain’s Royal Air Force ?
Doctors and families in the organ transplant system in Spain ?
A design team reinventing the water bottle in France ?
Children resolving their own playground conflicts in Finland ?
Disabled people designing their own public services in Australia ?
Citizens reinventing democracy in Iceland ?
Medical workers rolling back tropical diseases in Chile ?
And more …
Are all these slow fixes’ relevant to every reader?
Definitely, yes. Some of the slow fixes will be directly relevant to your own life, organisation or community, but my goal was to go much deeper. What The Slow Fix does is draw universal lessons about how to find the best solution when anything goes wrong. That meant spotting the common ground between problems that on the surface seem completely unrelated. What lessons can peace negotiators in the Middle East, for instance, take from the organ donor system in Spain? How can a community regeneration program in Vietnam help boost productivity in a company in Canada? What insights can French researchers trying to reinvent the water-bottle take from the rehabilitation of a failing school in Los Angeles? What can we all learn from the troubleshooters at NASA? From the gamers who spend billions of hours tackling problems online? From the contestants in Odyssey of the Mind, the closest thing we have to an Olympics of problem-solving? Bottom line: The Slow Fix delivers a recipe that can help anyone tackle any problem.
What is wrong with quick fixes?
Every quick fix whispers the same seductive promise of maximum return for minimum effort. But that equation seldom adds up. When dealing with complex problems, the quick fix addresses the symptoms rather than the root cause. It puts short-term relief before long-term cure. It makes no provision for unwelcome side effects. Trying to solve problems in a hurry, sticking on a band-aid when surgery is needed, might deliver temporary reprieve – but usually at the price of storing up worse trouble for later. The inconvenient truth is that quick fixes rarely fix anything at all. And sometimes they just makes things worse.
Any examples?
I’ll give you two. Even as we drop billions of dollars on diet products promising Hollywood thighs and Men’s Health abs in time for summer, waistlines are ballooning all over the world. Why? Because there is no such thing as One Tip to a Flat Stomach.
Even in business, where speed is usually an advantage, our fondness for the quick fix is backfiring. When firms hit choppy waters, or come under pressure to goose the bottom line or jack up a sagging stock price, the knee-jerk response is often to downsize. But shedding staff in a hurry seldom pays off. It can hollow out a company, demoralise the remaining workforce and spook customers and suppliers. Often it leaves deeper problems untouched. After sifting through 30 years’ worth of longitudinal and cross-sectional studies, Franco Gandolfi, a professor of management, came to a stark conclusion: ‘The overall picture of the financial effects of downsizing is negative.’
But surely fixing things quickly isn’t always bad?
Of course not. There are scenarios – patching up a soldier on the battlefield, for instance – when sitting back to stroke your chin is not an option. You have to channel MacGyver, reach for the duct tape and cobble together whatever solution works right now. When circumstances demand a quick fix, by all means deliver a quick fix, but never let it stand untested. Come back later, when time permits, to forge a more lasting solution.
Does that mean a quick fix never fully solves a problem?
Not never. Not all problems are created equal. Some can be fixed with a quick and simple solution. Inserting a single line of code can stop a misfiring webpage from inflicting mayhem on a company. When someone is choking on a morsel of food, the Heimlich manoeuvre can dislodge the offending object from the windpipe and save the victim’s life. Job done. My focus in The Slow Fix is on a very different kind of problem, where the parameters are unclear and shifting, where human behaviour comes into play, where there may not even be a right answer. Think climate change, the obesity epidemic, a broken relationship or a company grown too big for its own good.
Is the “quick fix” a modern phenomenon?
Not at all. Looking for shortcuts is nothing new. Two thousand years ago Plutarch denounced the army of quacks hawking miracle cures to the gullible citizens of Ancient Rome. At the end of the eighteenth century infertile couples queued up in hope of conceiving in London’s legendary Celestial Bed. The amorous contraption promised soft music, a ceiling-mounted mirror and a mattress stuffed with ‘sweet new wheat or oat straw, mingled with balm, rose leaves, and lavender flowers’, as well as tail hairs from the finest English stallions. An electric current allegedly generated a magnetic field ‘calculated to give the necessary degree of strength and exertion to the nerves’. The promise: instant conception. The cost for one night of fertile fumbling: £3,000 (US$4,800) in modern money.
Is the quick fix more prevalent today?
Definitely. The quick fix has become the standard across the board in our fast-forward, on-demand, just-add-water culture. Who has the time or patience for Aristotelian deliberation and the long view any more? Politicians need results before the next election, or the next press conference. The markets panic if wobbly businesses or wavering governments fail to serve up an instant action plan. Websites are studded with ads promising fast solutions to every problem known to Google: a herbal remedy to reboot your sex life; a video to perfect your golf swing; an app to find Mr Right. All over the world, doctors are under pressure to heal patients in a hurry, which often means reaching for a pill, the quick fix par excellence. Feeling blue? Try Prozac. Struggling to concentrate? Join Team Ritalin. In the never-ending quest for instant relief the average Briton now pops, according to one estimate, 40,000 pills in a lifetime.
So what exactly is this slow fix?
First of all, it is a state of mind. An acceptance that solving complex problems requires patience, effort and resources. Once we change that chip in our heads, then we can start forging a Slow Fix by taking the time to: admit and learn from mistakes; work out the root causes of the problem; sweat the small stuff, think long and connect the dots to build holistic solutions; seek ideas from everywhere, work with others and share the credit; build up expertise while remaining skeptical of experts; think alone and together; tap emotions; enlist an inspiring leader; consult and even recruit those closest to the problem; turn the search for a fix into a game; have fun, follow hunches, adapt, use trial and error and embrace uncertainty.
Can ew really put the slow fix into practice in a world addicted to speed?
Absolutely. There will be plenty of resistance, but the best arguments are all on the side of the Slow Fix. Fixing problems thoroughly is never an indulgence or a luxury; it is a wise and essential investment in the future. A problem left to fester now will almost always be harder and more costly to fix later on. Put in the time, effort and resources today, and reap the benefits in your business, relationship or health in the future.
So you’re optimistic that we can start putting the slow fix agead of the quick fix?
Very much so. Wherever you go in the world today, and in every walk of life, more people are turning away from the quick fix to find better ways to solve problems. Some are toiling below the radar, others are making headlines, but all share one thing in common: a hunger to forge solutions that actually work. The good news is the world is full of Slow Fixes. You just have to take the time to find and learn from them.
More Reviews
“With sharp, rhythmic prose, Honoré presents a number of guideposts to effective problem solving supported by intriguing anecdotes…A feast of stories about people overcoming obstacles, with the promise of showing us how to better cope with our own struggles.” – Quill and Quire
“Honoré has travelled the world trying to eradicate ‘the virus of hurry’ and the endless multitasking that robs people of serenity, reflection and face time……Honoré spent two years digging up case studies to illustrate exactly how and why (the Slow Fix) approach works.” – Toronto Star
“A terrific book.” – Kathy English, Public Editor, Toronto Star
“Honoré is a skilled journalist, well aware of the virtues of brevity in relating an anecdote or setting a scene or making a point. The narrative never bogs down.” – National Post (Canada)
“I would recommend Carl Honoré’s “The Slow Fix.” In a world so markedly addicted to the “quick fix,” Honoré presents multiple examples of a problem-solving and decision-making paradigm which will enhance the value and viability of one’s personal and professional life. His process, fluid and flexible, entails taking and making time to reflect thoughtfully, listen carefully, think holistically, learn and teach honestly, and lead with compassion and creativity. Any prospective leader should read Honoré to learn how so often the best quick fix is the slow fix.” – Joel Jones, The Daily Times (New Mexico)
“Honoré gives us a good reminder that it’s important to step back from our fast-paced lives every once in a while and slow down, however hard that may be.” – Justine’s Bookends Review
“Journalist Honoré observes that our society is hooked on the quick fix as we seek the maximum return for the minimum effort. He offers a practical and entertaining guide to what he calls the “slow fix” for problem solving: hard work requiring humility to admit we do not have all the answers and we need time and help. The self-help industry encourages the quick fix, and Honoré acknowledges the media’s role, too, as it immediately leaps into a crisis and demands instant answers and remedies. Steps in the author’s slow fix for solving complex problems include taking time to admit mistakes and finding what is really wrong, focusing on details, thinking long, building holistic solutions, seeking ideas from others and sharing the credit, acquiring expertise while remaining skeptical of experts, tapping emotions, enlisting a leader, consulting those closest to the problem, treating problem solving as a game, following hunches, adapting by trial and error, and embracing uncertainty. This is a sound, thought-provoking book.” – Mary Whaley, Booklist
“After reading the first six pages of The Slow Fix at my desk, I turned to a coworker and exclaimed, “This is so good!”….Honoré’s writing remains engaging throughout, with careful attention to the people and places that populate his examples of successful slow fixes.” – Jack Covert, 800ceoReads
“The Slow Fix is an…eloquent…roadmap for genuine transformation, for rewiring the way we overcome both individual and universal obstacles….Unlike the authors of so many quick-fix, meme-studded self-help books, Honoré practices what he preaches, taking time to build his theories and exploring them through both narrow and wide lenses….Without resorting to a single bullet point in 262 pages, he shatters leadership and talk-show clichés…” – Alice Peck editor at Rewire Me
“Covering situations from failing schools in Los Angeles and the prison system in Norway to the crime-ridden city of Bogotá, Colombia, and the coffee farms of Costa Rica, (Honoré) proposes the ingredients for long-term solutions…(his) challenge is to slow down, analyze, assess, and explore how others have turned around failing organizations and systems with lasting results. – Carol Elsen, Library Journal
“Après Éloge de la lenteur, son dernier titre, Carl Honoré nous revient avec Lenteur mode d’emploi. Pionnier du slow movement, il nous explique comment mieux vivre dans un monde où tout va très vite. Très bien documenté, ce livre est surprenant et offre une perspective nouvelle sur notre façon de vivre. À lire pour comprendre et mieux penser.” – Huffington Post Québec
“A wake-up call to parents and educators, as well as a solid summary of how children are being raised in the 21st century. Honoré covers a lot of territory, investigating academic testing and homework issues, extracurricular activities and sports, consumerism, and safety issues. . . . This is not a parenting book or a how-to manual, but rather a comprehensive look at the state of the childhood nation.” Quill & Quire
“An engaging and alarming exploration of children as vanity projects.” Macleans
“Carl Honoré examines child-rearing attitudes and actions across the globe…seeking a way forward to a new dawn when we can encourage our children to slow down, develop at their own pace and just act their age.”Daily Record (Scotland)
“An indispensable, anecdotal, commonsensical guide.”Globe and Mail
Carl won an Audiophile Earphones Award for his reading of BOLDER
LANGUAGES: English, Chinese (Complex Characters), Chinese (Simple Characters), Croatian, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Swedish
It’s about how the pressure to give our children the best of everything and make them the best at everything is backfiring on kids, parents and society as a whole. But the book is not all doom and gloom. On the contrary, it maps out how we can start rescuing childhood from the excesses of the early 21st century. Under Pressure has been translated into more than 20 languages. It was shortlisted for the biggest literary prize for non-fiction in Canada. TIME magazine, in a cover story, described Under Pressure as the “gospel of the slow-parenting movement.”
Who is the audience for Under Pressure?
Parents, teachers, coaches, doctors, counsellors – anyone who has an interest in kids. Lots of teenagers are reading the book, too, and using it to start a debate in their own families and schools.
What is Slow Parenting and how does it fit in with Under Pressure?
I coined the term Slow Parenting a few years ago. My first book, In Praise of Slow, examines how the world got stuck in fast-forward and chronicles a global trend towards putting on the brakes. This culture-quake is called the Slow movement “Slow” in this context does not mean doing everything at a snail’s pace. It means doing everything at the right speed. That implies quality over quantity; real and meaningful human connections; being present and in the moment. The Slow creed can be applied to everything we do: work, sports, medicine, food, sex, design…and, of course, child-rearing.
To me Slow Parenting is about bringing balance into the home. Children need to strive and struggle and stretch themselves but that does not mean childhood should be a race. Slow parents give their children plenty of time and space to explore the world on their own terms. They keep the family schedule under control so that everyone has enough downtime to rest, reflect and just hang out together. They accept that bending over backwards to give children the best of everything may not always be the best policy (because it denies them the much more useful life lesson of how to make the best of what they’ve got.)
Slow parenting means allowing our children to work out who they are rather than what we want them to be. It means letting things happen rather than jumping in and forcing them. It means accepting that the richest kinds of learning and experience often cannot be measured or neatly packaged on a résumé or CV.
Slow parents understand that childrearing should not be a cross between a competitive sport and product-development. It is not a project; it’s a journey. Slow parenting is about giving kids lots of love and attention with no conditions attached.
Is Under Pressure an attack on parents?
No, absolutely not. I am a parent myself and I know how hard and confusing it is to raise children today. It is not just kids who are under pressure now; it’s parents too. We feel we have to push, polish and protect our offspring with superhuman zeal – or else we’re somehow falling down on the job. We start from the noble and natural instinct to do the best for our kids but end up going too far. Social and cultural pressure drives a lot of this. My aim in the book is not to blame or demonise parents. It is to make us all feel less guilty and insecure about our children, and to show how parenting less hard can actually help them to thrive even more.
So other forces are at work here beyond just parents?
Definitely. Outside the home, everyone from the state to the advertising industry is trying to bend childhood to fit its own agenda. A task force of British parliamentarians recently warned that too many children dream of growing up to be fairy princesses or football stars. Their solution: career advice for five-year-olds. Consumerism has crept into corners of children’s lives that once seemed untouchable. Even the humble sleepover is now an advertising opportunity, with companies such as Girls Intelligence Agency sponsoring slumber parties where tweens sample new products and fill in questionnaires. McDonald’s workers visit the children’s wards of hospitals to hand out toys and balloons, as well as leaflets promoting their food. Put all this together, and many kids now see an estimated 40,000 ads a year.
Why did you write Under Pressure?
It all started at a parent-teacher evening. The feedback on my seven-year-old son was good but the art teacher really hit the sweet spot. He stands out in the class, she gushed. Your son is a gifted young artist. And there it was, that six-letter word that gets the heart of every parent racing. Gifted. That night, I trawled Google, hunting down art courses and tutors to nurture my son’s gift. Visions of raising the next Picasso swam through my mind until the next morning. “Daddy, I don’t want a tutor, I just want to draw, my son announced on the way to school. Why do grown-ups always have to take over everything?” The question stung like a belt on the backside. You know, I thought, he’s right. I am trying to take over. I’m turning into one of those pushy parents you read about in the newspapers. So I started thinking about how easy it is to get carried away as a parent, and to end up hijacking your children’s lives. That showdown with my son was the trigger that set me off on the journey that ended with my writing Under Pressure. As a father I wanted to take some of the heat and anxiety out of my parenting. I wanted to know how far to push, polish, protect and pamper my own children.
How did you research Under Pressure?
I spent nearly two years travelling through Europe, the Americas and Asia to investigate the state of childhood today. I visited schools, nurseries, sports teams, laboratories and toy fairs; I interviewed teachers, coaches, camp councillors, advertisers, police, therapists, doctors and every kind of child development expert; I sifted through the latest scientific research. I also spoke to hundreds of parents and children. Everywhere I went, I was struck by how much people everywhere are yearning to find a new approach to child-rearing that gives children the time and space to be children.
What makes Under Pressure relevant today?
Childhood is always evolving and it has always been defined by adults. But we seem to have reached a point now where childhood is being warped more than ever before by adult fantasies and fears, anxieties and agendas. Every aspect of childhood – education, safety, discipline, sports, play, etc – is now set up to suit grown-ups rather than children. We are living in a culture that tells us that childhood is too precious to be left to children and children are too precious to be left alone.
How widespread is this micromanaging approach to children?
It is global. Some nations call it hyper-parenting. Others refer to “helicopter parents” who always hover overhead. Canadians joke about “snow-plow parents” who clear a perfect path through life for their kids. In Japan, “education mothers” devote every moment of their time to steering their kids through the country’s schooling system. “Tiger parenting” is rife in the Chinese world. Even in Scandinavia, where everyone is supposed to be gloriously relaxed, they talk of “curling parenting”: picture mum and dad frantically sweeping the ice in front of their child.
Is hyper-parenting the domain of the affluent?
Not all childhoods are created equal. You don’t find many children being hyper-parented in the refugee camps of Sudan or the shantytowns of Latin America. Even in the developed world, millions of youngsters, especially in poorer families, are more likely to suffer from underparenting than overparenting. Let’s be honest: most helicopter-parents hail from the middle class. But that does not mean this cultural shift only affects the well-to-do. When it comes to social change, the middle classes usually set the tone. And already hyper-parenting is eroding social solidarity because the more obsessed people become with their own children, the less interested they become in the welfare of other people’s.
How did we reach this point?
We got here because a number of trends have converged at the same time to produce a cultural perfect storm. The rise of globalisation has brought more competition and uncertainty to the workplace – which makes us more anxious about equipping our kids for adult life. The consumer culture has reached a kind of apotheosis in recent years and the net effect is to create a culture of soaring expectations: we now want perfect teeth, perfect hair, a perfect body, perfect vacations, a perfect home – and perfect children to round off the portrait. As parents we feel immense pressure to give our children the best of everything and make them the best at everything – to give them a “perfect” childhood.
Demographics have also changed in ways never seen before in history. Smaller families mean we have more time and money to lavish on each child. Parents are more anxious because small families give them less experience of parenting and put their genetic eggs in fewer baskets. Women are having babies much older than ever before, and that can add another layer of worry. If your first pregnancy comes at 38 or 39, then you may well have spent long years fretting over and planning for the child. And if something goes wrong you may not be able to have another one to make up for it. So there is a built-in anxiety from the start.
Parents of both genders are having kids older, or after many years in the workplace. As a result, we end up importing the office ethos into the home. We think, “Well, how can we parent better? Why don’t we do what we do at work when we want to improve our performance: bring in the experts, spend lots of money and put in long hard hours – we will professionalize parenting.”
The bottom line is that parents in this generation have lost their confidence. That makes us easy prey for companies hawking unnecessary tools for childrearing (helmets to protect toddlers from head injuries, anyone?). And very vulnerable to pressure from other parents (“What, you mean your two-year-old doesn’t have a tutor?!?”).
What is the evidence that our approach to children is backfiring?
If you look at the time, money and energy that we’re putting into our children, we should be witnessing the emergence of the happiest, healthiest, most able generation of kids the world has ever seen. But that’s not what’s happening.
Let’s start with health. Cooped up indoors and ferried everywhere in the backseat of a car, kids are growing fatter than ever before. Athletic kids suffer as well. Too much training too young is wearing them out. Injuries like anterior cruciate ligament tears, formerly only seen in college and professional athletes, are now rife in secondary school and increasingly common among nine- and ten-year-olds.
And where the body goes, the mind follows. Child depression and anxiety—and the substance abuse, eating disorders and self-harm that often go with it—are now most common not in urban ghettos but in the smart downtown apartments and leafy suburbs where the go-getting middle classes are piling pressure on their children.
Micromanaged kids can end up struggling to stand on their own two feet. University counselling services report that students are going to pieces in record numbers. And professors tell of 19-year-olds handing over the mobile phone in the middle of interviews with the words: “Why don’t you sort this out with my mum?”
The umbilical cord even remains intact after graduation. To recruit college graduates, blue-chip companies such as Merrill Lynch have started sending out “parent packs” or holding open-house days when Mum and Dad can vet their offices. Parents are even turning up at job interviews to help negotiate salary and vacation packages.
Along the way something precious and hard to measure is also being lost here. William Blake, the English poet, famously summed up the magic and wonder of childhood thus:
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wildflower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
Today, many children are too busy racing to violin practice or math tutoring to hold infinity in the palm of their hand. And that wildflower sounds a little scary—what if it has thorns, or the pollen triggers an allergic reaction?
How does a parent know when he or she is parenting too hard?
It’s not always easy because the line between engaged parenting and hyper-parenting can be a fine one, yet there are some telltale warning signs. You may be going too far if you do your children’s homework; shout yourself hoarse at their sporting events; spy on their social media profiles; let them take fewer risks than you did at the same age; find them falling asleep en route to their next extracurricular activity; quote verbatim from parenting manuals; regularly eat meals in the car on the way to activities; have no conversation beyond what your children are up to; never spend time alone with your partner.
When it comes to raising children, are we getting everything wrong?
No, definitely not. There are many advantages to growing up in the developed world in the early twenty-first century: You are less likely to suffer malnutrition, neglect, violence, or death than at any time in history. You are surrounded by material comforts that were unthinkable even a generation ago. Legions of academics, politicians, and companies are striving to find new ways to nurture, feed, clothe, school, and entertain you. Your rights are enshrined in international law. The Internet is a hugely exciting new frontier for learning and playing; fathers are much closer emotionally to their kids than ever before. It’s not all bad news for kids.
So do you see signs of change in the right direction?
Yes, very much so. Around the world, schools are curbing the obsession with exams and trimming the academic workload – and finding that when pupils have more time to relax, reflect and take charge of their own learning, they learn better.
To give youth sports back to the young, leagues are clamping down on parents howling abuse from the sidelines and shifting the emphasis away from winning at all costs to learning and enjoying the game.
To give over-scheduled children a breather, towns across the world now hold special days when all homework and extracurricular activities are cancelled. Many families are so relieved to go just one evening without dashing off to karate or lacrosse that they prune their planners during the rest of the year. Elite universities are sending a similar message. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology revamped its application form to put less emphasis on the number of extracurricular activities a candidate signs up for and more on what really fires his passion. Even the mighty Harvard urges incoming freshmen to check their over-scheduling ways at the door. Posted on the university Web site, an open letter by Harry Lewis, a former dean of the undergraduate school, warns students that they will get more out of college, and indeed life, if they do less and concentrate on the things that really fire their passion: “[You] are more likely to sustain the intense effort needed to accomplish first-rate work in one area if you allow yourself some leisure time, some recreation, some time for solitude, rather than packing your schedule with so many activities that you have no time to think about why you are doing what you are doing.” Lewis also takes aim at the notion that everything young people do must have a measurable payoff or contribute toward crafting the perfect CV. “You may balance your life better if you participate in some activities purely for fun, rather than to achieve a leadership role that you hope might be a distinctive credential for postgraduate employment. The human relationships you form in unstructured time with your roommates and friends may have a h3er influence on your later life than the content of some of the courses you are taking.” The title of the letter sounds like a direct challenge to the culture of hyper-scheduling. It is called: Slow Down: Getting More Out of Harvard by Doing Less.
Our penchant for bubble-wrapping children to keep them safe from even the tiniest risk is also coming under review. At a new pre-school in Scotland, three-year-olds spend the day in a forest negotiating harsh weather, open camp-fires and poisonous fungi. Sure, they suffer the odd scratch or burn, but they arrive at kindergarten happier, more confident and less prone to illness and allergies than do their indoor peers. Or look at the global success of The Dangerous Book for Boys, a manual stuffed with tips on how to enjoy all kinds of high-risk pastimes, from racing go-carts to making slingshots and catapults.
What do children really need?
They need time and space to explore the world on their own terms: that is how they learn to think, invent and socialise; to take pleasure from things; to work out who they are, rather than what we want them to be. They need lots of love and attention with no conditions attached. We’ve done it for poultry and cattle – now it’s time to do the same for the young. It’s time to usher in the age of the free-range child.
Are you suggesting that we should give children total freedom?
No, definitely not. A lighter touch is not always the best policy. When it comes to shielding our children from consumerism, we need to wield a heavier hand. That is why parents around the world are campaigning to stop companies from advertising in schools. There is also a backlash against the trend for ever more lavish birthday parties. Many parents are now fixing spending limits on gifts and party bags, or eliminating them altogether. Others are agreeing on guest quotas. In other words, parents are relearning the lost art of saying No.
Many children today actually need to hear “No” more often. Even as we pour time, money and energy into helping our kids build a killer CV, we tend to go a bit wobbly on the discipline front. It just seems easier to say Yes to another hour on the xBox or to an untidy bedroom. But children need discipline and a firm hand sometimes. Boundaries make them feel safe and equip them for life in a world built on rules and compromise. Children need us to say No sometimes.
What do you hope Under Pressure will achieve?
I hope that readers will come to the end of the book and breathe a huge sigh of relief. Especially parents. I want to inspire readers to ease off and find the natural balance between doing too much and too little for children.
Does that mean parents need to regain their confidence?
Exactly. This generation of parents has lost its confidence. I wrote Under Pressure to regain my own confidence and help others do the same. Confident parents are able to resist the scare-mongering and the peer pressure in order to find their own way to raise their children.
There is no magic formula for raising kids. Every child is unique and every family is unique. The secret is to find the formula, the style of parenting, that works best for you and your children – and not to feel like you have to follow exactly what everyone else is doing.
What advice would you give to parents?
Ignore the panic and peer pressure – your child will be fine. Trust your instincts. Find your own way to parent. Listen to and observe your child. A child is not a project or a product or a trophy or a piece of clay you can mould into a work of art. A child is a person who will thrive if allowed to be the protagonist of his own life.
“A wonderful addition to any child’s library… The whole book made me want to hit the open road, rucksack on my back and just a vague itinerary in my hand, to experience the joys of slow journeys.” SLOW TRAVEL
“If you are a young explorer who wants to see the world, this book is perfect for you!”ARMADILLO
“A wonderful book for families…would also work well in the classroom to support the teaching of geography and would definitely be an excellent addition to the primary school library.” LIBRARY LADY
“Important and timely….can be navigated in many ways and revisited…would make an excellent addition to Key Stage 2 classroom libraries.” JUST IMAGINE
“With elements of history, culture and traditions woven into each destination, readers can feast their souls on every aspect…the ideal starting point.” MY SHELVES ARE FULL
“Make sure to read carefully the author’s 12 ways to travel ‘Slow’; it could make all the difference to your experiences. Till then you can become a world traveller without leaving your sofa by slowly reading this beautifully illustrated book.” RED READING HUB BLOG
“Students with an appetite for amazing facts will love this … beautifully illustrated hardback. This book would be a fantastic present for a young person who is especially keen on geography and/or history and would also be very inspiring and topical in the classroom or library.” BOOKS FOR KEEPS
“Aunque con la vista puesta sobre todo en jóvenes y niños, el libro posee la potencia suficiente para lograr que todos soñemos con un camino alternativo en el que vivir la experiencia del viaje desde la consciencia y la sostenibilidad.” El Asombrario & Co
Travelling slowly lets you experience the world in all its richness and wonder.
When you slow down and take your time, you notice the details that make each place unique. You meet people and learn about their history and culture. You discover new sounds, aromas and flavours.
Travelling slowly turns any journey into a balm for the soul and a banquet for the senses.
This book is a hymn to moving through the world at a gentle pace. It features four slower modes of transport: bicycle, train, boat and your own two feet.
Every night you can take a new adventure. Walk the famous Inca Trail in Peru. Sail back in time on the River Nile. Cycle up (and down) the steep Alpe d’Huez. Ride the railway to the top of Mount Washington.
“Amo tanto este nuevo libro de trabajo de Carl, Aprende A Desacelerar En 30 Días, en el cual guía al lector a través de los pasos para disminuir la velocidad en un mundo donde estar perpetuamente ocupado se considera a menudo una medalla de honor.” — Arianna Huffington
“Recomiendo altamente este libro de trabajo a cualquiera con ganas de recuperar el aliento. Ejercicios sencillos y fáciles que valen su peso en oro.” (Reseñador de Amazon, 5 Estrellas)
¿Vives en modo “avance rápido”? ¿Siempre apresurado, siempre ocupado, siempre distraído?
¿Anhelas bajar la velocidad?
Si es así, entonces has venido al lugar correcto ….
Durante casi 20 años he estado explorando cómo y por qué reducir la velocidad en un mundo rápido.
Escribí tres libros, hice programas de radio y televisión y ofrecí cientos de presentaciones y talleres sobre el tema. Mi primera charla TED se llamó “Elogio de la lentitud”.
Ahora, he destilado todo lo que sé sobre la desaceleración en mi primer libro de trabajo: Aprende A Desacelerar En 30 Días.
Es una guía práctica paso a paso que te ayudará a reducir las prisas, las distracciones y el ajetreo de tu vida. Para ayudar a reconectarte con tu tortuga interior.
La verdad es que es posible reducir la velocidad en un mundo rápido. Y no solo es posible, es lo mejor que puede hacer por ti y por las personas que lo rodean.
Disminuir la velocidad puede hacerte:
• MÁS CALMADO
• MÁS CONCENTRADO
• MÁS FELIZ
• MÁS EFICIENTE
• MAS SALUDABLE
• MÁS PRODUCTIVO
• MAS CREATIVO
• MÁS PRESENTE
Disminuir la velocidad puede mejorar tu vida en el trabajo, en casa y en cualquier lugar intermedio. En un mundo adicto a la velocidad, la LENTITUD ES UN SUPERPODER.
¿Entonces, qué esperas?
Adquiere tu ejemplar de Aprende A Desacelerar En 30 Días hoy mismo….
Y recuerda siempre las palabras de Mae West:
“Cualquier cosa que valga la pena hacer, vale la pena hacerlo lentamente”.
“A joyously life-enhancing book (that) shatters the myths about ageing.” (DAILY MAIL – MUST READ 2020)
“With grace and elegance, Bolder reveals the unexpected beauty of growing older.” (READER’S DIGEST – BOOK OF THE MONTH)
“Informative…In dark times, Bolder is a book that really does look to the future with optimism.” (THE HERALD)
“A pick-you-up for anyone feeling the best of life has been lived.” (AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW)
“Honoré is a verbal magician, conjuring concepts with no new idea too complex to capture….Easy to read, the book canters along.” (AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW)
“Bolder makes some thought-provoking proposals…(it) is about age, but it is not a book for the old.” (LONDON TIMES)
“Honoré has so many examples of collaboration, grit and creativity that you won’t be so afraid when you come to inhabit your older self.” (THE BOOKSHELF)
“Carl challenges us to rethink our approach to aging and start seeing it as a privilege, rather than a punishment.” (GLOBAL NEWS)
“[O]ne of the lessons of Carl Honoré’s informative book is that ageism is steadily being rolled back, even if much of it is going on under the radar.” (THE GUARDIAN – Fiona Millar)
“For some age-old wisdom . . . Carl Honoré’s delightful book … shows how this ‘longevity revolution’ can be a boon, not a burden.” (CHATELAINE)
“[A] call for society to become less ageist and for individuals to stop worrying about the process of ageing and wring every drop out of whatever time is allotted to us.” (THE GUARDIAN – Stephen Moss)
“(Honore’s) stirring research and faith in the human spirit will linger long after one hears this exceptional audio.” (AUDIOFILE MAGAZINE – T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award 2019)
“Anyone who dreads the thought of ageing will find solace in this book, which is peppered with real-life stories from around the globe of the people Honoré interviewed.” (THE AUSTRALIAN)
“A sensation when he spoke about “slow living” for TED in 2005, Honoré has now turned his attention to the gap between an obsolete ageist culture – one that assumes “older” means “worse”, “weaker” and “out-of-touch” – with the reality he encountered in his research…Pack Bolder in your holiday holdall.” (BRITISH GQ)
“The very idea of growing older can evoke fear, angst, guilt, shame, scorn, even revulsion. We suspect that aging is all about becoming less: less attractive, productive, relevant, happy, creative – maybe even less ourselves. In this immensely readable book, Carl proves nothing could be further from the truth. The weaving of fascinating personal stories from a “Graffiti Granny” to couples who find love later in life mixed with lots of social science research had me nodding “yes!” instead of nodding off. There’s an energetic enthusiasm in this book that is representative of how Carl lives his life as a practicing hockey enthusiast and curious student of life. He helps remind us that “what will define you in the future, much more than your age, is the choices you make” and that aging is a universal phenomenon we can’t escape. He continues, “What can change is how we age and how we feelabout it.” This book has a wide lens covering everything from our bodies to our role in the workplace to our image and romance to the joy of intergenerational connection.” (CHIP CONLEY, AUTHOR OF WISDOM AT WORK: THE MAKING OF A MODERN ELDER and FOUNDER OF THE MODERN ELDER ACADEMY)
“Wonderful.” (Care2)
“Uplifting.” (THE LADY)
“Un libro bellísimo para leer, para recomendar, para charlar….Un librazo – ¡no te lo pierdas!” (INFOBAE)
“En trescientas páginas de testimonios inspiradores, más cerca del periodismo de fenómenos que de la literatura de autoayuda, Honoré registra los primeros pasos de lo que será un gran movimiento: considerar el envejecimiento un privilegio en lugar de un castigo.”(LA NACIÓN, ARGENTINA)
What is BOLDER about?
Ageing – how we can do it better and feel better about doing it. It’s also a rallying cry against the last form of discrimination that dare speak its name: ageism.
Is there a particular age group the book is aimed at?
Not at all. It’s for anyone of any generation who is pondering (or worrying about) what it means to grow older. I wish there had been a book like this around when I was 30: it would have saved me two decades of anxiety and dread!
What inspired you to write the book?
I was at a hockey tournament, and playing well, when I suddenly discovered I was the oldest player there. The news shook me to the core. I began wondering if I looked out of place, if people were laughing at me, if I should take up a more gentle pastime, like Bingo. It got me thinking about how we often feel ashamed and afraid of growing older. How we imagine it’s all about loss, decline, decrepitude and sadness. I wanted to know if there was another, happier story to tell about ageing.
And is there?
You betcha! What I discovered through my research is that many of our downbeat assumptions about ageing are wrong. And, here’s the really exciting bit: many things can actually get better as we grow older.
Such as?
One thing that really blew me away is that people are generally more contented in later life. Across the world happiness seems to follow a U-shaped curve, bottoming out in middle age and then rising again thereafter. Even Pete Townshend confessed to feeling more cheerful in his 60s than he was when he wrote one of the most ageist lines in the pop music canon: ‘Hope I die before I get old.’ As we age, we become more comfortable in our own skin and less worried about what others think of us. We tend to form stronger, more fulfilling relationships. Ageing can also make us more altruistic.
Doesn’t ageing kill off romance and sex?
Not necessarily. Another part of my research that startled me (in a good way) was discovering just how many people are falling head over heels and/or enjoying great sex in later life. The conventional wisdom that romance and bedroom fireworks belong to the young is flat-out wrong. Hurray!
What about all the terrible things that happen to our bodies and brains as we age?
The news is not nearly as bad as you think. These days we have more and more levers to pull (nutrition, technology, medicine, exercise) to slow the physical decline brought on be ageing, which means we can go on doing amazing things with our bodies deep into later life. That is why the media is packed with stories about people kitesurfing in their fifties, climbing mountains in their sixties, running marathons in their seventies, cycling long distance in their eighties and swimming competitively in their nineties. Today, the average over-65-year-old is in better shape than ever before.
How about what ageing does to our brains?
Of course, we lose some cognitive zip as we grow older but our brains are extremely good at compensating. That’s why creativity can carry on right up to the end of our lives: think of Louise Bourgeois coming up with those iconic giant spiders in her 80s. Some experts think ageing alters the brain structure in ways that make us even more creative. Older adults also tend to be better at seeing the big picture, embracing compromise, weighing multiple points of view and accepting that knowledge can only take you so far. When tackling problems in a familiar field, older brains are quicker to spot the patterns and details that open the door to finding a solution. After sifting through piles of studies, researchers at Harvard University concluded that four key skills do not ripen fully until around the age of 50: arithmetic, vocabulary, general knowledge and a grasp of how the world works. We can also carry on learning new things right up to the end of life.
What about dementia?
Without doubt dementia is the darkest cloud hanging over later life.Not only is there no cure but we do not even know why it strikes in the first place. Nevertheless, the picture is not as apocalyptic as the headlines proclaim. Around 17 per cent of people over the age of 80 have dementia, but that means the other 83 per cent do not. And researchers are confident that we’re on the road to making breakthroughs in both treatment and prevention.
Is there more good news?
You betcha: the list goes on. Social and emotional smarts often improve with age, too. We get better at reading people. Our richer vocabulary helps us speak, write and communicate better and our capacity to co-operate and negotiate improves. We also get better at putting ourselves in other people’s shoes, finding compromises and resolving conflicts. As we age, we become less prone to wild swings of emotion and better able to cope with negative feelings such as anger, fear and envy. In other words, we find it easier to keep our heads while all about us are losing theirs.
What does all this mean for ageing in the workplace?
It means that older workers can bring a lot to the party. Productivity rises with age in jobs that rely on social skills – as more and more do nowadays. When companies set up suggestion boxes, older staff usually generate more and better ideas, with the best proposals tending to come from the over- 55s.
But isn’t the start-up world dominated by young guns?
On the contrary. Older people are smashing it in the start-up world. A recent study of all new businesses launched in the USA came to the following conclusion: “We find no evidence to suggest that founders in their 20s are especially likely to succeed. Rather, all evidence points to founders being especially successful when starting businesses in middle age or beyond.” Bottom line: there is no such thing as the ‘wrong’ side of 40.
What makes you think we can learn to be less ageist?
Because the world is changing in ways that herald a golden age of ageing. More jobs rely on the social acumen that improves with age. Every day, medics are getting better at managing the diseases and decline that come in later life. Every year there are more older people on the planet – and there is strength in numbers. It is harder to dismiss or denigrate a growing chunk of the population, especially when so many of them are taking life by the scruff of the neck.
What does history tell us about attitudes to ageing?
That they can change over time. Human beings may be hardwired to admire young bodies and recoil from anything that portends death, but beyond that, how we feel about growing older is shaped by culture – and culture evolves. In 17th- and 18th- century Europe, for instance, young men actually tried to look older by wearing powdered wigs and clothes tailored to give the impression of ageing bodies. If we embraced the cult of youth in the 1960s, then we can choose to un-embrace it now.
Has writing BOLDER changed you?
Yes, profoundly. It has made me feel so much more at ease with the idea of growing older. Like anyone else, I still worry about what the passage of time will do to my health, my finances, my looks, my loved ones. Nor do I want my life to end. But such worries feel less daunting now because I know that, with a little luck and the right attitude, lots of good stuff awaits me in the coming years. Best of all, I no longer feel ashamed to play hockey (or any sport) with people half my age!
What do you hope readers will learn from BOLDER?
To see ageing in a completely new light. To move from fear and dread to the kind of understanding and optimism that will help them make the most of their lives – at every age. The real challenge facing us is not ageing; it’s ageism. My first three books took down the canard that faster is always better. BOLDER is about shooting down the myth that younger is always better. I also hope to spark a wider public debate about attitudes to ageing. If all of us are going to have an equal chance of ageing better then we need to rewrite the rules of everything, from the workplace and education to design and social services.
“So love Carl’s new workbook 30 Days to Slow, in which he guides readers through the steps of slowing down in a world where perpetual busyness is often seen as a badge of honor.” (Arianna Huffington)
“I would highly recommend this for anyone wanting to catch their breath. Simple, easy exercises worth their weight in gold.” (Amazon reviewer, 5 Stars)
Do you live in fast forward? Always rushing, always busy, always distracted?
Do you yearn to slow down?
If so, then you’ve come to the right place….
For nearly 20 years I’ve been exploring the how and why of slowing down in a fast world.
I’ve written three books, made TV and radio programs and delivered hundreds of presentations and workshops on the subject. My first TED talk is called “In Praise of Slowness.”
Now, I have distilled everything I know about slowing down into a workbook.
It’s called 30 Days To Slow.
It’s a practical, step-by-step guide to help you dial down the rushing, the distraction and the busyness in your life. To help you reconnect with your inner tortoise.
The truth is that it is possible to slow down in a fast world. And not only is it possible, it is the best thing you will ever do for yourself and the people around you.
Slowing down can make you:
CALMER
More FOCUSED
HAPPIER
More EFFICIENT
HEALTHIER
More PRODUCTIVE
More CREATIVE
More PRESENT
Slowing down can unleash a better you at work, at home and everywhere in between. In a world addicted to speed, slowness is a superpower.
So, what are you waiting for? Pick up your copy of 30 Days To Slow today….
And always remember the words of Mae West:
“Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.”
To help you get the most out of my Workbook, I have put together a schedule that includes page-by-page instructions and weekly videos.
NB: Wherever you live, you can buy the workbook from any of the Amazon sites listed on this page. You may also find it on your local Amazon site.
“A joyously life-enhancing book (that) shatters the myths about ageing.” (DAILY MAIL – MUST READ 2020)
“With grace and elegance, Bolder reveals the unexpected beauty of growing older.” (READER’S DIGEST – BOOK OF THE MONTH)
“Informative…In dark times, Bolder is a book that really does look to the future with optimism.” (THE HERALD)
“A pick-you-up for anyone feeling the best of life has been lived.” (AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW)
“Honoré is a verbal magician, conjuring concepts with no new idea too complex to capture….Easy to read, the book canters along.” (AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW)
“Bolder makes some thought-provoking proposals…(it) is about age, but it is not a book for the old.” (LONDON TIMES)
“Honoré has so many examples of collaboration, grit and creativity that you won’t be so afraid when you come to inhabit your older self.” (THE BOOKSHELF)
“Carl challenges us to rethink our approach to aging and start seeing it as a privilege, rather than a punishment.” (GLOBAL NEWS)
“[O]ne of the lessons of Carl Honoré’s informative book is that ageism is steadily being rolled back, even if much of it is going on under the radar.” (THE GUARDIAN – Fiona Millar)
“For some age-old wisdom . . . Carl Honoré’s delightful book … shows how this ‘longevity revolution’ can be a boon, not a burden.” (CHATELAINE)
“[A] call for society to become less ageist and for individuals to stop worrying about the process of ageing and wring every drop out of whatever time is allotted to us.” (THE GUARDIAN – Stephen Moss)
“(Honore’s) stirring research and faith in the human spirit will linger long after one hears this exceptional audio.” (AUDIOFILE MAGAZINE – T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award 2019)
“Anyone who dreads the thought of ageing will find solace in this book, which is peppered with real-life stories from around the globe of the people Honoré interviewed.” (THE AUSTRALIAN)
“A sensation when he spoke about “slow living” for TED in 2005, Honoré has now turned his attention to the gap between an obsolete ageist culture – one that assumes “older” means “worse”, “weaker” and “out-of-touch” – with the reality he encountered in his research…Pack Bolder in your holiday holdall.” (BRITISH GQ)
“The very idea of growing older can evoke fear, angst, guilt, shame, scorn, even revulsion. We suspect that aging is all about becoming less: less attractive, productive, relevant, happy, creative – maybe even less ourselves. In this immensely readable book, Carl proves nothing could be further from the truth. The weaving of fascinating personal stories from a “Graffiti Granny” to couples who find love later in life mixed with lots of social science research had me nodding “yes!” instead of nodding off. There’s an energetic enthusiasm in this book that is representative of how Carl lives his life as a practicing hockey enthusiast and curious student of life. He helps remind us that “what will define you in the future, much more than your age, is the choices you make” and that aging is a universal phenomenon we can’t escape. He continues, “What can change is how we age and how we feel about it.” This book has a wide lens covering everything from our bodies to our role in the workplace to our image and romance to the joy of intergenerational connection.” (CHIP CONLEY, AUTHOR OF WISDOM AT WORK: THE MAKING OF A MODERN ELDER and FOUNDER OF THE MODERN ELDER ACADEMY)
“Wonderful.” (Care2)
“Uplifting.” (THE LADY)
“Un libro bellísimo para leer, para recomendar, para charlar….Un librazo – ¡no te lo pierdas!” (INFOBAE)
“En trescientas páginas de testimonios inspiradores, más cerca del periodismo de fenómenos que de la literatura de autoayuda, Honoré registra los primeros pasos de lo que será un gran movimiento: considerar el envejecimiento un privilegio en lugar de un castigo.”(LA NACIÓN, ARGENTINA)
Ageing – how we can do it better and feel better about doing it. It’s also a rallying cry against the last form of discrimination that dare speak its name: ageism.
Is there a particular age group the book is aimed at?
Not at all. It’s for anyone of any generation who is pondering (or worrying about) what it means to grow older. I wish there had been a book like this around when I was 30: it would have saved me two decades of anxiety and dread!
What inspired you to write the book?
I was at a hockey tournament, and playing well, when I suddenly discovered I was the oldest player there. The news shook me to the core. I began wondering if I looked out of place, if people were laughing at me, if I should take up a more gentle pastime, like Bingo. It got me thinking about how we often feel ashamed and afraid of growing older. How we imagine it’s all about loss, decline, decrepitude and sadness. I wanted to know if there was another, happier story to tell about ageing.
And is there?
You betcha! What I discovered through my research is that many of our downbeat assumptions about ageing are wrong. And, here’s the really exciting bit: many things can actually get better as we grow older.
Such as?
One thing that really blew me away is that people are generally more contented in later life. Across the world happiness seems to follow a U-shaped curve, bottoming out in middle age and then rising again thereafter. Even Pete Townshend confessed to feeling more cheerful in his 60s than he was when he wrote one of the most ageist lines in the pop music canon: ‘Hope I die before I get old.’ As we age, we become more comfortable in our own skin and less worried about what others think of us. We tend to form stronger, more fulfilling relationships. Ageing can also make us more altruistic.
Doesn’t ageing kill off romance and sex?
Not necessarily. Another part of my research that startled me (in a good way) was discovering just how many people are falling head over heels and/or enjoying great sex in later life. The conventional wisdom that romance and bedroom fireworks belong to the young is flat-out wrong. Hurray!
What about all the terrible things that happen to our bodies and brains as we age?
The news is not nearly as bad as you think. These days we have more and more levers to pull (nutrition, technology, medicine, exercise) to slow the physical decline brought on be ageing, which means we can go on doing amazing things with our bodies deep into later life. That is why the media is packed with stories about people kitesurfing in their fifties, climbing mountains in their sixties, running marathons in their seventies, cycling long distance in their eighties and swimming competitively in their nineties. Today, the average over-65-year-old is in better shape than ever before.
How about what ageing does to our brains?
Of course, we lose some cognitive zip as we grow older but our brains are extremely good at compensating. That’s why creativity can carry on right up to the end of our lives: think of Louise Bourgeois coming up with those iconic giant spiders in her 80s. Some experts think ageing alters the brain structure in ways that make us even more creative. Older adults also tend to be better at seeing the big picture, embracing compromise, weighing multiple points of view and accepting that knowledge can only take you so far. When tackling problems in a familiar field, older brains are quicker to spot the patterns and details that open the door to finding a solution. After sifting through piles of studies, researchers at Harvard University concluded that four key skills do not ripen fully until around the age of 50: arithmetic, vocabulary, general knowledge and a grasp of how the world works. We can also carry on learning new things right up to the end of life.
What about dementia?
Without doubt dementia is the darkest cloud hanging over later life.Not only is there no cure but we do not even know why it strikes in the first place. Nevertheless, the picture is not as apocalyptic as the headlines proclaim. Around 17 per cent of people over the age of 80 have dementia, but that means the other 83 per cent do not. And researchers are confident that we’re on the road to making breakthroughs in both treatment and prevention.
Is there more good news?
You betcha: the list goes on. Social and emotional smarts often improve with age, too. We get better at reading people. Our richer vocabulary helps us speak, write and communicate better and our capacity to co-operate and negotiate improves. We also get better at putting ourselves in other people’s shoes, finding compromises and resolving conflicts. As we age, we become less prone to wild swings of emotion and better able to cope with negative feelings such as anger, fear and envy. In other words, we find it easier to keep our heads while all about us are losing theirs.
What does all this mean for ageing in the workplace?
It means that older workers can bring a lot to the party. Productivity rises with age in jobs that rely on social skills – as more and more do nowadays. When companies set up suggestion boxes, older staff usually generate more and better ideas, with the best proposals tending to come from the over- 55s.
But isn’t the start-up world dominated by young guns?
On the contrary. Older people are smashing it in the start-up world. A recent study of all new businesses launched in the USA came to the following conclusion: “We find no evidence to suggest that founders in their 20s are especially likely to succeed. Rather, all evidence points to founders being especially successful when starting businesses in middle age or beyond.” Bottom line: there is no such thing as the ‘wrong’ side of 40.
What makes you think we can learn to be less ageist?
Because the world is changing in ways that herald a golden age of ageing. More jobs rely on the social acumen that improves with age. Every day, medics are getting better at managing the diseases and decline that come in later life. Every year there are more older people on the planet – and there is strength in numbers. It is harder to dismiss or denigrate a growing chunk of the population, especially when so many of them are taking life by the scruff of the neck.
What does history tell us about attitudes to ageing?
That they can change over time. Human beings may be hardwired to admire young bodies and recoil from anything that portends death, but beyond that, how we feel about growing older is shaped by culture – and culture evolves. In 17th- and 18th- century Europe, for instance, young men actually tried to look older by wearing powdered wigs and clothes tailored to give the impression of ageing bodies. If we embraced the cult of youth in the 1960s, then we can choose to un-embrace it now.
Has writing BOLDER changed you?
Yes, profoundly. It has made me feel so much more at ease with the idea of growing older. Like anyone else, I still worry about what the passage of time will do to my health, my finances, my looks, my loved ones. Nor do I want my life to end. But such worries feel less daunting now because I know that, with a little luck and the right attitude, lots of good stuff awaits me in the coming years. Best of all, I no longer feel ashamed to play hockey (or any sport) with people half my age!
What do you hope readers will learn from BOLDER?
To see ageing in a completely new light. To move from fear and dread to the kind of understanding and optimism that will help them make the most of their lives – at every age. The real challenge facing us is not ageing; it’s ageism. My first three books took down the canard that faster is always better. BOLDER is about shooting down the myth that younger is always better. I also hope to spark a wider public debate about attitudes to ageing. If all of us are going to have an equal chance of ageing better then we need to rewrite the rules of everything, from the workplace and education to design and social services.
An abridged version of In Praise of Slowness read by an actor.
Today, the culture is about speed. But in this race against time, nothing survives – our work, our health, our relationships, our sex life. We are in such a hurry that the person or thing that slows us down immediately represents the enemy to be defeated. A whole current of opinion questions this cult of speed and reaffirms the virtues of slowness. Called “Slow”, it in no way claims that we must do everything at a snail’s pace but emphasizes that our quality of life requires a better balance between speed and slowness. Carl Honoré’s investigation, carried out from country to country, shows the different forms taken by this phenomenon which affects more and more people. What if good use of slowness could make our lives richer and more productive?
10“In this three-CD program which runs three hours, Honore presents a potpourri of fascinating observations and spiritual practices for those who want to “put on the brakes.” We were especially impressed with his comments on a speed audit, finding your slow mantra, the lost art of slow lovemaking, the problem with hyper-parenting, helping children connect with their inner tortoise, bringing Slow into your community, finding your speed trigger, and the slow time exercise. Carl Honore succeeds in convincing us to slow down as a way of decelerating our lives.” – Spirituality and Practice
“With specialists finding all sorts of things right or wrong with modern man, Honore’s Power of Slow finds the solutions, encouraging us all to slow down and showing us how…. Honore’s CDs are valuable to have around the house or at work where the momentum of obsession and anxiety can rev you out of the moment before you can take a deep cleansing breath. Honore’s been there. Let him help show you the way down.” – DailyOM
It’s a how-to course packed with tips, techniques and exercises for slowing down in a fast world. I am the narrator.
Why and how did you record it?
Ever since my first book, In Praise of Slow, came out, readers have been urging me to publish a companion volume in the style of a how-to manual. I have always resisted. Writing a self-help book with tips, techniques and exercises is not really my thing. But then I hit on a compromise. A wonderful multimedia company called Sounds True suggested I record an audio version of the self-help book that readers were asking for.
A few months later, I found myself sitting in a studio in Boulder, Colorado, a gloriously slow town nestled in the Rocky Mountains. It was an extraordinary experience. I spent two days in a studio, munching dried fruit, drinking industrial quantities of water and talking into a microphone. It was a chance to revisit old material, ideas and emotions – and to give them all a fresh twist. A real privilege.
The good news is that no one has to listen to me yakking on for two days. My heroic producer, Nancy Smith, has edited everything down to a very tight three hours (on three CD)s. She has also edited out the sound of my eating and drinking. The final product is called The Power of Slow. Hope you enjoy it!
