Slowing down the way up

We have been taught to chase our dreams. We fight hard for the things we want. We hustle non-stop to meet our goals. We drill hard to find the ideas we are looking for.

It works. If we hit hard enough, the door often comes down, eventually. But there’s another way we need to recognize too. There are things we seek that may not come from running hard. Sometimes it takes slowing down.

It’s what happens when you spend hours tying to crack that creative script or design. Then you abandon it to take a walk, or sleep, or read. And it hits you when you were not seeking.

I have seen this over and over. Some of our best strategies have come when we decided to slow down, to take a break, to detach for a moment.

We should chase our dreams. We should knock repeatedly on that door. But sometimes it takes sitting down and just staring at the door. To realize it was never locked.