Overcoming Urgency: The Art of Slowing Down

Something I’m trying to work on is slowing down in my own work.

I’m someone who once they get an idea, I have to do it RIGHT NOW, and share it RIGHT AWAY, otherwise I start to feel overwhelmed and like the idea is too big for me, and like I’m running out of time to share it, and there’s this invisible deadline that people are expecting it to be made public; or the experience is over so it’s no longer relevant.

Which is ridiculous because no one actually knows the idea even exists.  Who’s there to set the deadlines? Who’s there to know if it did or didn’t get created? Who’s there to know how long it took to be completed?

NO ONE.

Only me.

And I’m really working hard to get my body and brain to work together and understand this, because once the idea is in my head, and I’m excited about it, and I want to do it, there’s this EXTREME URGENCY that feels so all-consuming.

It feels unhealthy.  I have all these half finished projects and half baked thoughts in writing that I never finish or share or even create because “it’s too late, the opportunity has passed.”

When in reality, most of my best received work has been the ones I actually sat with for days, the ones I took my time with, the ones I re-read and walked away from for a little bit so I could come back and review with a fresh set of eyes. The only deadlines being set are by myself (for most of this stuff anyways), and who is there to judge how long I’m taking to get it done?

Also - what does it even matter if something isn’t completed right away??

I can’t tell you how many notes I have in my phone of projects I’m so excited about, but am TERRIFIED to actually start because I know they’d take me months to finish - maybe even years… and for some reason that feels too scary to me.

But it’s something I wish to work on this year - and into the many years ahead of me.

To focus on quality rather than quantity.  To focus on developing and expanding my skills.  To allow myself to take time with the things I’m excited about.

To remind myself that while life may be short, I have more time than I let myself accept.

I think this is sometimes a hard thing for those who have lost someone really important to them at a young age to grasp, because the finality of life becomes so real, and the reality that it could all end so suddenly, leaves you feeling like you have no time to do all the things.

Which in a way is true - if you’re a big dreamer with a never-ending list of things you’d like to achieve and experience, you’ll never get to do them all in a life-time.  Which isn’t a bad thing; it just means you need to really get to know yourself so that you can learn to recognize what is most important to you, so that you can prioritize and make most effective use of your time.

And also recognize that rushing something to completion doesn’t actually mean you’ve given yourself more time.

Your life is going to end whenever it ends.  You have no control over that (sure you can go down the rabbit hole of discussing risk mitigation, but that’s not the point of this piece).   The best thing you can do is: rather than stressing over life running out of time and rushing everything, focus on giving your time more life and appreciating the present moments.

If you focus on that, I don’t think you can ever go wrong.

Stay passionate and curious,

Hunter 💛

(The irony of this post is that from the time of opening the new note to write this, to putting on my website was less than an hour lol I had to force myself to stop and go eat something rather than rushing to get it live… this practice is a work in progress lol)