🐢 TREE 464: People move at the speed they do

A thing I have learned – and it has taken me a very very long time to learn and sometimes I forget that I’ve learned it so I have to learn it again – is that people move at the speed they do and there is very little I can do to make them go faster. By “move”, I mean everything from personal growth to getting kids/friends out the door on time. I have learned that when I try to make people move faster, it frustrates me, it frustrates them and it usually slows them down. People move at the speed they do.

I’ve also learned that there are a couple things I can do to keep from turning into an impatient hound when coexisting with people who move more slowly than me.

1. Plan around others’ speed. If I know someone will need more time than me to get where we need to go, It’s crazy to build plans that work at my speed. I need plans with more time and clearer communication.

2. Serve others by clearing the way. I can look ahead and see what things are likely to impede the progress of the the person I’m moving with. If I can get those tasks or mental barriers out of their way, they can keep moving. Slow and steady is much much better than slow and intermittent.

Please enjoy this AI-generated image of a sloth on an impossible bicycle as a metaphor for the point of today’s post.

This Lost Dogs song from 1992 was playing in my head this weekend. (Spotify)

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Grow slowly
Jeff