Leaning into the pause: Honouring yourself without losing momentum | Intentional living mindset
When doing less is actually moving forward…
The last few months have been so full. Full of things to do, full of interesting experiences and also full of lessons.
Besides the usual life things, I am in the midst of preparing for a trip to Canada. I haven’t been back in almost three years and haven’t travelled internationally in two years so it’s an exciting time.
Aaaand there’s a lot of preparations that need to be done. There’s a lot of things on my to-do list that might not normally be there or with such a tight deadline.
There was no episode of the podcast this week. And I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I had a very zen moment about this. I did not.
The podcast is immensely important to me. But with my energy and focus pulled in multiple directions, I didn’t feel I had something truly valuable to say or an energy potent enough to deliver an impactful message.
So my options were:
Show up for the sake of consistency and ‘putting out a weekly podcast’
Honour myself, my current energy levels and my needs first
I’ll bet you can guess which one I chose. When I work with clients, we always start our sessions out with an intention. An intention helps them get clear on what they want to focus on and gives me insight into their state of mind which helps us go deeper during our time together.
My intention with the podcast is to add value, show up fully and really give tangible, actionable advice to those who listen.
You’ll notice I didn’t say that my intention is to ’show up consistently.’
While consistency is a nice, though overly lauded, idea, something I often say to clients is to focus on being inconsistently consistent. Consistency doesn’t mean every single day. It means most days. Because when we put that kind of pressure on ourselves we are often setting ourselves up to fail. There are very few things in life that we actually do every single day. And if we set the intention to do things most days and manage to do them every day, then that becomes a bonus not a weight to carry.
I also often say that doing something for the sake of doing it is rarely a good reason to do it at all. When the intention is to do something that you don’t feel like doing ‘for the sake of getting it done’ or checking another item off your to-do list, your energy isn’t fully in it and you’re likely not benefitting from that thing as much as you would like.
In this season of life, I’ve also taken a few days off learning Russian (which I started in October of last year). Not because I am any less committed to learning, but because I know that the potency of my learning is less powerful in this moment. Once I am well-rested and cared for, the way that I learn and the efficacy of it will be tenfold.
There are seasons of life where doing the thing is important. Where showing up when you feel a little ‘meh’ is just the solution to get you back on track. But there are also seasons for slowing down and learning to accept where you are in this moment as good enough without working towards the next thing.
I can see this in my health routine. I am committed to running but I am not in an energetic space to run. I’m not beating myself up about it. I’ve accepted this situation and I am focusing on how I can move forward in a softer, gentler way. To me this looks like going on daily walks. For the last two weeks, I’ve walked about 3km every single day in lieu of running because I know what my end goal is and even if I can’t take the steps I had initially imagined, I can still take small steps that move me in that same direction.
How does this idea land for you? What is an area of your life where your idea of how it ‘should be’ is tripping you up? Where can you realign with your intention and adjust your strategy to honour your needs while still moving you towards your ultimate desire?
Leave a comment below and let me know. Or come join the conversation inside The Wild Free Well Space on Insight Timer!
