This summer, I’ve been returning to my mantra for patience: “It’ll come to me.”
I’ve been reflecting on how slowing down often encourages the best ideas to bubble to the top. When you hit pause, take a beat, sleep on an idea, stop grinding so hard, and prioritize slow reflection over progress, ideas seem to just…arrive. In their own time.
Slow down to speed up
When I take a break and then come back a project or a draft, I always have a new perspective and a new emotional presence. I’m less stressed, more optimistic, more open to potential answers I hadn’t considered before.
[The same is true when I’m stuck on a tough Wordle, too. If I close the app and come back later, I almost always see the word instantly.]
I’ve noticed this phenomenon in my recent work with clients.
This summer, I’ve been helping a company develop simplified language about their work. The question we were trying to crack: How could they share their complex, meaningful work…in a way that’s easy for anyone to understand? How do they boil down their unique magic in just a few words? There’s no easy answer, which is why “It’ll come to me” is the only way to approach this kind of tough task.
If you hammer away, demanding your brain/your colleagues/ChatGPT (ahem) deliver the perfect answer, you’ll probably end up feeling defeated and still not any closer to success. But if you pause, take a beat, walk away for an hour or a day or 2 days, it’s amazing what happens. New ideas simmer. Words come to you like a lightning bolt.
So as you float through these longer days of summer, ask yourself:
- What am I rushing? Is going fast really helping me?
- What would happen if I slowed down?
- How can I stop forcing the answers and instead, have faith that it’ll come to me in time?
I’ll be doing my best to take my own advice.
Looking for more ways to slow down, reflect, and let ideas come to you?
- Try these mid-year reflection prompts for thought leaders.
- Reflect on your core ideas to make a thought leadership “quote page.”
- Push yourself to chase the sparks.
