Stopping To Advance
Everyone seems busy now. There is always more to do, more to answer, more to build and manage and improve.
Somewhere inside all that movement, the real questions stop getting asked. How do I actually want to spend my limited time here? Not my productive time. My living time.
Despite every advance promising more connection and more freedom, most of us are busier than ever and lonelier than ever.
Technology is not the enemy. And even on the days it feels like one, we have to be honest: it is not slowing down for anybody.
So perhaps the way forward is not moving faster, consuming more, or adding another productivity system. Perhaps it is to pause. Long enough to feel where this life is actually heading, and to ask whether the speed is serving the soul or just distracting it.
Here is a note I wrote to myself one evening while feeling exceptionally drained. I still read it whenever I catch myself overly busy or disconnected.
Stop.
Yes, just stop.
Sit down for a moment, instead of rushing through life as if it is a race.
It isn’t.
Sit down and feel your body. Is it telling you a change is needed?
You’re not going to live forever, you know. Life can be very short.
What is it that you truly want?
Deep in your soul.
Listen to that voice.
Peel back the layers of your deepest self until your soul’s voice is clear and loud.
Dig deep.
Don’t run away from the fact that you may need to change every aspect of your life.
Just for a moment, don’t run or numb yourself with your self-soothing instrument of choice.
Your life is now, and only now.
Stop and feel.
Feel the doubt, the uncertainty, the fear… Open and allow yourself to be changed.
Are you afraid of losing…relationships, money, control, job, identity?
Feel it through. Then let go. It’s only when we let go that we are truly free to embrace our calling.
Embrace your calling and pursue it with every ounce of your being.
Because you can never fail when you’re pursuing a calling.
The pursuit is the reward. Not the outcome.
Let go and enjoy the ride.
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an impact-driven creator at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 life goals around the globe. Tal's journey and recent book, The Art of Fully Living, inspired him to found Elevate Society.
