When you're passionate about your work, it can feel like a drug. You get tunnel vision, and things just start happening. You move fast. Those moments are a rush. But in that rush, we might sometimes make stupid decisions. We say yes to things because we're way to motivated and in an adrenaline rush. We just want to keep things going (1). But, when everything's a sprint, you'll crash eventually. Even top sprinters need breaks for recovery.

Service creators, owners and workers need this too. Take moments to check if what you're doing still aligns with your big ideas, your values. Pause the implementation craziness to review and make sure you're not making rushed decisions. These values could be as simple as your company's core principles or as complex as consulting an ethics committee before big moves.

Action question

What values can you use as checkpoints to positively break the flow of implementation?

Daniele's notes

• This is the first shitty draft of this principle

• This principle might one day make it in the fifth book in the "Service Design Principles" series that explores how to better serve humans and the planet.

• If you're curious about service design principles, you can get the four previous books in the series, with proofread principles and less grammatical creativity.

• Written with AI help: This principle draft is based on an audio note I took while walking that was transcribed and cleaned using Audiopen. I then reviewed and improved the text by hand.