The single most stupid thing I ever did, but heard at the time as a funny little soundbite, was “You don't have to rush.”
It used to be a thing that I didn't like hearing those words when I was younger.
"Slow down.", "Take your time."
Good things come to those who wait!, and all these statement seemed to me like excuses that people made when they lost their dreams.
I wanted things ready now!
Quick success.
Quick results.
Quick recognition.
There had to be a shortcut, I wanted to find it.
I think I was not aiming for success, I was running from time.
I was feeling like everyone else was getting on with life but I was just trying to get a grip on it.
Social media was not of assistance either.
Each day seemed to bring another young millionaire, another startup success story, another creator who was celebrating milestones that I wondered, is it too late for me?I felt like there was a new young millionaire, new startup success story, new creator celebrating success each day that made me wonder, “Is it too late for me?”
I disregarded one of the best tips that anyone ever gave me:
Don't compare your timeline to others!
Rather, I wanted to do it all!
I would begin a project before I completed another one.
Yes, because I thought, “What if I don't take advantage of this opportunity and miss out??”
I thought that, if I was busy all the time I was making progress.
The truth?
I was more tired than productive.
Then, there was a time when life made me take it easy.
But not because I wanted to, but because I had overdone it.
This season was something I was able to learn from that I would never have gotten from advice.
Evolution does not have to be a sprint!
It's a process.
All processes cannot be rushed without compromising the quality.
Would I rather see people make mistakes or hear them tell me on how not to make them?
I think that we need both...after all.
Advice provides us with a direction.
We learn how to read it from experience.
However, there are experiences that can only be experienced through personal errors.
Nor because the advice was bad.
There's an old saying that experience can drive truth into the mind.
Another thing I have discovered is that the timing is important too.
Often we are not in a state to receive great advice until years after we are given it.
The suggestions remain the same.
We do.
What at one time was restrictive turns out to be wise.
It was the same with me, friend.
The same words which I used to scoff have now become principles which I seek to follow.
I'm still ambitious.
I still dream big.
I still want to create things that have significance.
The difference is that I don't measure success in terms of speed to get there.
I gauge myself on whether or not I am the kind of person who can weather it when it hits me.
Now if I could speak to my younger self I wouldn't say to him, “Make your dreams smaller.”
I would just remind him that the strongest of the buildings are not the fastest built.
These are the ones that last!
Often the things that we don't do can turn out to be right.
Life waits patiently.
One day it gives us the lesson that the advice was trying to give us all along.
And that is when it dawns upon us that wisdom is not necessarily in new things.
Often it's found in old words, that we had not heard yet.
Image Generated with Chatgpt
