Last night at volleyball we were up by five points with two minutes left on the clock. Suddenly everyone was feeling the pressure, and we started rushing to serve and keep the lead.

And then it hit me. We have the lead. Slow down. Let time work for us. We didn’t run after the ball when the other team hit it out of bounds. We retrieved it, and passed it back to our server at a reasonable pace. More seconds ticked off the clock. We served. The ball came back. We used our three hits; we scored the point.

The ball came for the next serve. We watched as the ball slowly made its way to the server. Tick, tick, tick. Only a few seconds left. We served, they returned, the buzzer sounded announcing time was up, we returned the ball and scored. Game over.

I thought about that as I was driving home. All we needed to do to win the match was to stick with the plan and play our game. We didn’t need to rush.

I need to remember that in my life. I have a plan for what I need to achieve at work. I know what I need to do for my fitness, for my house, for my friends. I don’t need to rush. I need to work my plan. Sometimes that means slowing down.

Does time work for you or against you?