Let it grow slow.
When you go half as fast, you notice twice as much—as true as this is in our everyday lives, it also holds true to with the goals that we want to achieve.
The idea of going slow and steady doesn’t always appeal. When it’s something we want to accomplish, it’s easy to be too excited to want to pace yourself, to be too swept up in the moment to take your time.
While there are moments for acting fast, the best way to turn up the heat is often simply to go slow. To pace yourself, and trust that often the most rewarding moments come from from a steady burn. Building things up slowly helps us make sure that we’re moving with intention and pacing ourselves, so we don’t get burnt out.
Making small steps in the direction we want to move might not feel like enough, but it often is. Small steps are still steps—they’re movement and action, and often in a way that we can more easily sustain.
This season, we invite you to ask yourself—where in your life can you go slow in pursuit of something? To practice the art of patience and seeing how even incremental changes can make a difference, we’re suggesting a few rituals to practice.
To control the heat. To not turn the dial up all at once, and to pace yourself. All of the best things begin with a foundation to grow.
Prompts to Let It Build
- Build a fire. Notice how you start with a strong base, and slowly add to it, using patience and best judgement. If it falls apart, simply begin again.
- Add something small to your home. Maybe it’s a bouquet of flowers, a new book, or something pulled out of storage. Pay attention to what a difference something small can make.
- When you shower or during your next soak, notice how the heat builds, how you may need to adjust as you go, how even the tiniest turn of the knob can bring things to just the right heat.
- Watch a pot of water boil. Next time you make a cup of tea or coffee, go against the popular adage and observe just how slow or how fast it takes.
- Consider a goal of yours, big or small. What is a small action that you can do take each day, to bring yourself closer? Maybe it just gets you 1% of the way there. Almost nothing, or so it seems. But doing that 1% a hundred times will get you there.
Charlotte Boates
Charlotte is a writer who heads up the Journal at GOODLAND. She’s written extensively for a range publications on slow living, design, architecture, and more. A frequent traveler, Charlotte is driven by sharing meaningful and impactful stories that encourage us to become more aware of the world around us.
