Patience is a virtue. Truly. Profound change is non-linear and in periods of substantial growth we sometimes hit roadblocks and confusion that seems to stall us outright. Patience in these moments helps us stay the course, tap back into creativity and resourcefulness. Patience keeps us from giving up and getting too frustrated to see our goals through.

HOWEVER—

Somewhere along the way the need for patience in transitions became the idea that change is necessarily slow. Which is, frankly, bullshit.

Slowing down change for the sake of "going slow" is the same as trying to turbo-charge change for the sake of doing it as fast as possible: It's unsustainable.

Now, I LOVE celebrating people and their personal, professional, creative progress. Like, I love it SO MUCH. It's a pre-requisite for being a coach. I will celebrate the fuck out of something you did that didn't even feel to you like a big deal. I'll slow us down to count your successes so they land more thoroughly in your brain. I'll show you again and again how far you've come so you have all the evidence you need to be more ambitious about how far you can go.

But I refuse to buy a client's story when they walk back a goal that was totally do-able because, "actually, just this baby step is a big change and accomplishment!"

Lovingly, no. That's not how it works.

Baby steps are not a requirement. Believing they are actually keeps sustained change from happening.

That gut-wrentching need to make change slow—just going inch by inch into the water and refusing to ever take the plunge—it's a sign that your nervous system is not on-board for doing things differently. And if your nervous system is not on board, change is not going to happen. Period.

Humans are beautifully designed creatures of doing the exact same thing forever unless something knocks us off that path. Don't misunderstand: We're also INCREDIBLY ADAPATIVE. But, the way we keep our brains and bodies on an efficient diet of daily calories burned is by doing the same fucking thing with less and less energy used.

Long story short, our bodies and brains are designed to revert back to same-old-same-old unless we give it a good hard shake up.

Being convinced that change only happens in baby steps, will absolutely fuck you up and keep you from ever getting anywhere you want to be into the future.

In reality, we don't get to decide how slow or fast change comes about. In fact, thinking about whether we should make "slow change" or "fast change" is entirely the wrong question.

In both cases, we're trying to control something we have no right trying to control.

Slow and fast aren't really choices, they're just effects of being strategic. Patience is a strategy. So is diving in headfirst! Experience and intuition are how you learn which is required. As long as you're doing these things from a place that prioritizes your internal safety (read: ability to regulate your own nervous system), you'll always find the way forward you need.

(Which, btw, is exactly the kind of inner wisdom my clients learn to build with me.)

I've heard beautiful metaphors where the slowness of change is compared to the growth of a mighty oak, etc., etc. Which, sure. But what about a tomato plant or a mushroom? What about a beanstalk that can be seen growing with the human eye? It's not about being fast or slow, it's about going at the pace that best serves the next stage of growth.

This is why I changed my coaching containers down to THREE MONTHS. And it's going AWESOME. 🔥 By taking an ambitious goal and fitting it into a tighter timeline, we raise the stakes on change. Change requires stakes. The greater the stakes, the more motivated we are to give it our all. Strategy, baby!

Now don't get me wrong. This is not for the faint of heart: Clients who have signed up for these shorter packages have been put through the fucking wringer by me. It is a veritable mental, spiritual, emotional, creativity boot camp. These are some intrepid souls that go for this shit!!

And the results have been beyond what they or I could have imagined.

Now does this mean I rush my clients into changing as many things as possible? It might seem counterintuitive, but no!

We spend 3 months S L O W I N G E V E R Y T H I N G D O W N.

We get their nervous systems on board.

We figure which dominos to knock down.

We clear out space so their creative work can flow with firey ease.

We go slow, to go fast.

Strategic asf.

So tell me! When's a time for you that change came in a giant burst (like an epiphany or breakthrough)? Did you ultimately welcome the opportunity to let things be radically different in a short period of time?

I want to know. Hit reply and tell me!

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Love + solidarity,

Sam