The Rush to Be Good

Plus what I learned from the Navy Seals

Turtle image from Lori on Pixabay

The rush to create something good undermines the possibility of making something great because it circumvents what is true.

If we are rushing to making something good, or trying to guarantee that we’ll make something good, the only way to do that is by making something safe. Doing something that has succeeded before. That we know other people will like because they liked the one we made before.

Rushing is so obsessed with the future that it disrespects the present. It is born from internalized ideas about productivity, real or perceived scarcity, and a feeling of not being enough.

I know this because I’m an expert in rushing—I come from a hurrying people.

How can you rush your process and embody the divine at the same time? You can’t. This is why truly embracing process as an end in itself matters. To develop a practice that respects where we are—not where we wish we were. For whatever it is that we’re trying to commit ourselves to.

I say “trying to commit” to because committing to ourselves is hard. Commitment is hard because we are uncomfortable being uncomfortable. With being an awkward beginner.

With being so-so.

In fact, I think so many people struggle with committing because they’re secretly afraid that they might work their asses off and remain so-so.

Like, forever.

And that feels scary.

So scary, in fact, that most people abandon ship at the very first sign of taking in water.

Which is why, to connect deeply with what matters most, we must find joy in “making art,” not “being an artist.” (Feel free to replace the word art with whatever is your particular passion: It’s all about “doing yoga” not ‘being a yogi.” It’s all about “learning another language,” not “being fluent.” It’s all about “meditating” not “being enlightened.”)

Rushing is about hurrying away from our pain or trying to pass some invisible test.

But we can’t hurry ourselves out of our unknowing. If we consider the years that brought us to this moment, it takes real compassion to slow down and say hello to where we are, to honor our fear or anxiety or confusion that brought us somewhere we don’t want to be.

Rushing gives nothing and takes everything.

Honor your pace. It has to be right because it’s yours.

A Lesson from the Navy Seals

Navy Seals have an expression about resisting the urge to hurry that I have taped to my studio wall:

I love it because it offers a fresh way to perceive slowness as the truer path to progress. It also shows how hurrying doesn’t help even in an emergency.

Whenever I read it, I always imagine a bunch of Navy Seals underwater learning how to detonate a bomb as they repeat that phrase to themselves over and over: “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Slow is smooth and…”

I’m not trying to detonate any bombs, I’m just making art. And yeah, it matters like hell to me, and yeah, at any given moment I might be surrounded by a lot of so-so, but I’m not ready to jump ship just because my feet are getting wet.

As we Navy Seals like to say, “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Slow is smooth and..”

How about you? Where are you on the hurrying spectrum? How do you face the fear of ‘so-so?’

Thank you thank you for being my reader. I love it so.