GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO PAUSE

There will be moments in life when immediate action is required. There will be times when you do not have the luxury of waiting on something or someone else, and you must act with courage immediately. Whether it's something personal, global, or somewhere in between, there are instances where the best thing to do is say, "now is the time to act."

And then there are many other moments where we feel the need to rush into something much faster than necessary. For example, we might get a rush of excitement to work on something, but no one else is as enthusiastic about it. We might become invested in a new relationship or partnership, but the other party involved seems less committed. Or we might have a strong desire to help in a big way, acting as a solo act when, in reality, it might be best to assess the situation and ask for help.

The idea of "when to act immediately" versus "when to wait" are not categories that we can easily and perfectly fit into two groups. However, perhaps, it's stil worth considering whether we could take a pause and ask ourselves, "Is this a place where I need to rush, or could I slow down and wait?" It may be challenging to figure out these answers in real-time, but it's something we can practice. Taking that extra moment to pause is something we can work on cultivating. While it may take mental energy to work through this, it also takes a lot of energy to rush into things that we could wait on. So perhaps, by approaching this more deliberately, we can create space to preserve our energy for those "now is the time" moments in life.

Give yourself permission to pause.
Give yourself permission to not rush into things before you’re ready.
Give yourself permission to practice slowing down in order to identify when to move forward and when to wait.

More in this week's series called "Beautiful Things Take Time", only with a subscription in the Storyteller App.

More tomorrow…
Sincerely,
Morgan Harper Nichols
@thestorytellerco
@morganharpernichols