The Problem With Rushing Growth

I love that I live in a part of the world where the changing of the seasons is so striking.

I love watching new plants come up in spring and seeing them progress – tiny buds blooming into daffodils, crocus, and tulips.?The flowering redbuds and crab apple trees make my morning walks seem magical.

In my backyard, I have 3 forsythia bushes.?They’re such beautiful plants but have struggled the past few years.?In their excitement to bloom, they can get going a bit too quickly.??As soon as it starts to warm up, they become heavy with blossoms.

This usually happens in late February or early March, months when the Midwest likes to give us a taste of spring but then pull back.?When the weather turns cold again, they freeze before they have a chance to open.?As a result, the bushes never fully bloom and end up looking sad and pathetic.

And I’ve made that same mistake.

In my excitement to get something new out into the world, I’ve gone too fast.?I didn’t pause to gain perspective from multiple aspects.?I missed things.?I made mistakes that, if I had only slowed down a bit, could have been corrected.?And the result was something less than I’d envisioned.?Similar to my forsythia bushes blooming too soon.

Why do we feel the need to push things so fast??What do we think will happen if we slow down?

Perhaps it’s that feeling we get when driving on the interstate.?

We don’t like cars rushing by us, so we speed up to match their pace.

It feels like society is going faster and faster and we’re being left behind professionally.?We start to panic that we’re not keeping up.?We move things forward at a pace that’s not true to who we are just to give the appearance of keeping up with everyone else.

Or maybe we’re just tired of what we’re working on and want it off our plate.

Perhaps we’re chasing something that doesn’t hold passion and meaning to us because we want to impress someone else.

We want to move on but we also don't want to disappoint anyone.?We half-heartedly complete it and push it out into the world without giving it the attention it deserves.

We all have our own natural rhythm in this world.?Finding and honoring it can be hard if it seems not to match the world around us.?Yet, when we find our own pace something magical happens.?

The stress and fear start to abate.?We find more passion and meaning in our work.?People are drawn to us because we're moving authentically - not just following a pattern or being sucked into the frenzied pace of society.

We are being courageously authentic, and others want to be around that energy.

What is YOUR natural pace??Where are you feeling the pressure to keep up with society?

What might you discover if you slowed down and took your own authentic path?

#pace #paceofchange #authenticity #authenticself #authenticleadership #followyourpassion #followyourheart #growth #growthmindset #businesscoach #executivecoach #coachingtips #leadership