Mindset
Slow and Steady
“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop”
– Confucious
Another New Year begins and with it, all the expectation that comes with 365 days of potential.
It’s said that we often believe we can accomplish less than we should in the span of a year, and more than we should in just one week.
We place too much expectation on the day-to-day, and not enough on the aggregate of many days of work and effort. By doing so, we find ourselves disappointed in the momentary constraint, versus motivated by the over-reaching progress only time permits.
The solution is not found in setting goals, as much as goals can be valuable, and provide a target on which to place our focus. Goals tend to objectify our process, but they also leave a great deal of space between the start and the finish. Focused solely on goals, our day-to-day can often seem impossibly slow.
But slow is faster than it appears.
Slow is the essence of progress, and progress can be challenging to touch. Real progress is in incremental change, not radical change. Radical change is obvious to the eye of the beholder, but it always comes at a cost of confusion and chaos.
But slow change isn’t inspiring, it doesn’t come with fireworks it doesn’t shock the system. So, for us to embrace change slowly over time, we need some way to sense that it’s happening. We need a way to feel it, recognize it, and believe it has happened.
That’s why regular self-reflection is imperative. Minding the gap is essential. The turtle finds just as much satisfaction in realizing it is just crossing the yellow line on the road as it does when it touches the gravel of the opposite side.
Through looking back at where we’ve come from, we realize just how much progress has been made. We see the progress reveal itself through the progress exposed by reflection.
We can celebrate this incremental change, rather than admonish our current set of circumstances. Be in the moment, but use the past to inform yourself of your growth, and the future to imagine the possibilities.
This is the art of the self-reflective practice. It clarifies your evolution.
And evolution is our purpose while we remain earthbound, however slow it might seem.
Keep the faith.
