Aim Lower, Go Slower
In our culture, it’s always about the quickest, fastest path. Do it as fast as you can. Make the biggest impact you can. Make it happen, quickly.
I happen to love perspectives that go against the grain.One of those things is this idea of aiming lower and going slower.
It goes against everything we are told we should do.
I find that when we approach change in this “quick, fast” way, we ride on this momentum for a while, but inevitably end up falling back to where we started.
Don’t get me wrong. I love BIG dreams.
I believe deeply in the power of aligning our thoughts to the experiences we want to create.
I’ve seen how powerful our mindset, our thoughts and our energy is in creating amazing outcomes and experiences in my own life and that of my clients.
But I also understand that all of our nervous systems, have a limit to what we can handle at a given time. I think this is the part that we don't see discussed enough.
When we go too big, too soon, we come up against this unconscious limit (that we all have) and end up self-sabotaging.
We get busy with other things
We procrastinate
We stall
We lose our belief
We might get scared
And end up back where we started.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve aimed for something too big too soon, and come up against these barriers and judged myself heavily for not achieving it.
That’s because our nervous system can’t fully hold what we are working towards…just yet. It feels too unfamiliar…just yet.But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to get there. We can shift our own inner limits but it doesn’t happen through the “quick, fast” approach to change.
So what’s the answer to all of this?
We can totally lift our own internal limits on what feels safe for us to have, on what we can ‘hold’, receive and commit to. This happens through steady progress. Not doing the biggest possible thing first.
Right about now your mind might want to totally dismiss this idea (that’s our cultural conditioning!)
This doesn’t mean losing ambition.
It doesn’t mean playing small.
It doesn't mean dulling down your desires either.
It’s actually about setting a target that feels reachable to you right now. What do you know that you can safely hold, or commit to?
Start there.
You do that. You feel successful from achieving that.
That creates momentum.
And you want to do more.
That forward momentum is totally magnetic to more of what you want. You start to draw in and attract more and more of what you want, because you have this readiness radiating out of you.
As you do this, you demonstrate to your nervous system that it’s safe to hold more of what you want.
This makes committing to change sooooo much easier.
Plus, the journey feels so much lighter.