“Be not afraid of going slowly. Be afraid only of standing still.”
Chinese proverb
Sometimes things go more slowly than you want them to. You feel like you’re waiting for things to happen – for the client to be ready to work with you, for your get up and go to come back, for things to fall into place, for other people – sometimes it’s all you not moving at the speed you’d like. Getting distracted. Watching Reels for too long. Getting lost in Pinterest. Doing anything but the things that will help you achieve your goals.
Sometimes slowness is worth it.
Sometimes when you rush things you don’t get things right. You miss something crucial. You cut corners. You don’t look after yourself enough.
I’m not the most patient person in the world, I get very frustrated when things change and the progress I was expecting to make has slowed down. However, that can often happen for the right reasons.
If whatever it was had been rushed then other things wouldn’t have happened.
If it had been rushed the final outcome wouldn’t be as strong.
Sometimes we need the slowness to grow. To appreciate life more. To discover a new direction. To rest.
To experience things that we wouldn’t have time for if we were going too fast.
Maybe moving forward slowly is better than moving forward quickly?
You can be more prepared for what’s coming with more time. You can make really solid progress – a firm foundation that won’t crumble. If you move forward really quickly then maybe you won’t be prepared, you won’t be able to keep up? Like running, and I am no running expert, but I do know that if you’re in a race and you go too fast you might struggle to sustain it, whereas if you go slow and steady you can keep going to the end. Like the story of the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise was slow and steady and kept going, but the hare raced ahead and decided to have a nap, so the tortoise overtook him and won.
Are you a tortoise or a hare? I’d much rather be a tortoise and get to the finish line, than be a hare and miss out.
You can’t make massive leaps ALL the time. Sometimes you’re too busy making money, or having life stuff happen to you, or working full time, or caring for someone, or whatever other reason to work ON your business, developing your products and services and coming up with new ideas. If you’re short on time for this then maybe you need to break down your goals into teeny weeny steps. To slot in when you can so you can keep moving forward but not stand still. Maybe you need to allocate yourself 30 minutes every morning to make progress, or one hour a week, or perhaps you need ten minute steps you can take so that there’s always something you can do but it’s so so small that it’s really easy.
You’ve got to keep moving to reach your goals. If you stand still, you won’t get anywhere.
Branding is slow.
Creating a brand isn’t a fast task for most businesses. Sure you can speed it up. If you happen to have a large audience somewhere anyway, if you’re a celebrity, if you have a budget for ads or marketing that gets you where you want to be quickly, if you have a great network or you have tons of time to create brand awareness quickly (more content, more in-person, more showing up.)
For most of us, it’s more of a long game. Implementing your brand, using it, spreading your message, gaining brand awareness, becoming memorable, being the go-to – that takes time. If you have developed something really strong, which you can keep going because it’s true to you and creates connection with others then it will be worth the time. Often we’ll hear of businesses that appeared “from nowhere” but in reality, they’ve been kicking about for ages, doing their thing, creating awareness, developing their message, stepping more and more into their brand, expanding their network, growing themselves and working hard to become known.
Branding is not instant coffee. It’s taking the time to raise awareness, creating a strong idea of what you’re about in peoples minds.
In much the way slow fashion is about well made, quality pieces that last a long time, your brand will be stronger, higher quality and last longer if you take your time and put your best efforts into it rather than rushing it. Spending time developing a strong and effective brand strategy before you do anything else and then using this to inspire your brandING, to lead your marketing and brand awareness – and of course your visuals. Spending time getting these right. If you’re going through a period of personal or business growth or change you may even want to pause this work during this period to ensure that the creation of your brand is inline with your business and able to carry you through into the future plans that you have for your business.
Slow is worth it.
Fast will need re-doing.
Take your time.