Yo yo yo. Welcome back to the Further your Lifestyle podcast conversations on lifestyle passions and hustles. My name's Chris, I'm your host and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you Episode 215 today and I want to break down something which I literally think will shift and change how you approach everything and you might actually already be doing this, and it's really a perspective understanding of maybe things are nowhere near as bad as you thought, and this has been something that I've kind of struggled with and really making sure that I'm paying a lot of attention to now. And it really comes back around your goals. It comes back to around whether you have a business, whether you have lots of habits or don't have a lot of habits, but it really comes down to your growth. We're talking about growth, but this one's not just about how to grow to be the most successful person, but it's actually talking about how to grow and have sustainable success. Now, success is going to be defined differently by everyone and you get to define what that looks like. No one else is going to get to define that for you, and don't let them. But really, what we're talking about today is what does it mean to grow slow. Now, we've spoken about growing slow a number of different times and with guests as well, but essentially, you know, in short, it's to move at a pace that is aligned to what you think it needs to be, and we've got to be careful here that we don't get complacent and give up and don't let ourselves grow. But that's what I want to talk about. But it's all about having a pace that fits for you, that builds real momentum and not burnout, burnout being a key thing that we want to avoid. And it's a pace that feels good, but at times it needs to feel uncomfortable as well, and the uncomfortable should come only because you've made yourself ready to actually face this next challenge.

So we're going to jump into a whole different bunch of parts of this. We're going to go through some problems, we're going to probe a few things, we're going to challenge a few things and I'm going to you know, hopefully, you know encourage you to think about maybe are you growing slow, or how can you grow slow, and maybe that the progress that you're making, that you think isn't fast enough, is actually as fast as it needs to be. So if that sounds like something you're interested in, please get comfortable. If you enjoy these episodes, make sure you hit like, subscribe, leave a comment if you want to continue the conversation. Most of all, please, if you can share this with someone else that you think needs to hear it. That would mean the absolute world to me. We're going to roll the intro and we're going to get into it. Let's do it.

So part one the main focus here, is we want to grow at our own slow pace. Now, the key idea that I'm talking about here is everyone's slow is going to look a little bit different. It's going to be different to how you see other people do it, whether it's in social media, whether it's in the day-to-day life. But that's the point. That is the idea. It's about growing at a speed that stretches you but doesn't snap you, doesn't break you, and it's really important that we follow. This is because when you grow slow, you're actually moving with intention, and we want to be doing everything with intention. We want to be building foundation, not just momentum. Momentum is great, but if you don't have a solid foundation to build on that like if you don't have the right bricks as a layer when building a house and you're just going you know guns in blazing, you're not going to have this solid foundation, and that's why to build a brick house, you have to layer one brick at a time. It's the only way to do it.

So for me you know, speaking from my own examples, getting pretty real here is I tend to have this own level of chaos that I create. Now, if you've watched some of my business videos, you'll understand that some of these chaos may look really wild for other people, but to me it's controlled. To me it's something that if it becomes too much, it gets bumped. If it becomes too much, I delay it. If it gets too much, I handle it later. But no matter what I'm doing, I'm staying in a flow, and the idea is that you want to grow slow enough that you feel in control, but fast enough that you're still uncomfortable. That is the whole premise. That's really what we're talking about here.

But there's probably this big question, which leads to part two, of how do we get comfortable with being uncomfortable? Now, growth only happens when we step out of our comfort zone. So we have a bubble. We need to expand that bubble. We need to get outside of those boundaries and outside of that box. But it doesn't mean you have to jump off a cliff to make that happen, right? I mean, sure you can go skydiving, you know, do all those things. That's going to get you uncomfortable. But what I'm saying is it's about gradually getting yourself there. It's about pushing yourself gently and gently still counts, in fact, it's actually more sustainable because you're going to actually move with intention. You're going to feel safe, but you're actually growing because you're doing things you've never done before.

A good example of this is maybe it's not about necessarily launching a business and going cold turkey, but maybe it's just about starting the idea, really just understanding what it is that you're wanting to do, and not going in cold turkey and quitting your job and then going to figure out how to do it. But maybe it's just about writing a plan. What does this even look like? I mean, we have so many tools and the ability to be able to do these things now, and you know simulate scenario, base and go through it with some. You know critical thinking and all that to really understand if something's going to be viable. You don't have to do it all today, right, but you do have to start moving If you want to be somewhere in five years time. What are you doing today that's going to get you closer to it? Like one thing. We've spoken I think I've mentioned this every single episode what's one thing that you're going to do today that's going to get you closer to where you want to be, and that's all. We get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

The other beauty of all this, which is part number three, is your journey, your timeline. You do you right. Your slow might be someone else's fast and comparison will kill all clarity that you think you have. You can take 10 years to build your dream and that's still a big win, right? Some people don't start because they think they're already behind. But who are you comparing to? If you're comparing to yourself, well then you're ahead because you're moving forward from someone that you do not want to be any longer. I mean, you're not late, right, you're just on your own road. Now, as soon as we bring other people into the equation in terms of comparison, that's when things are going to get messy and dirty. So you want to really make sure you're focusing on don't rush the journey, but learn to enjoy walking it. Right, when I do a trail run, when I'm doing my 52K ultra marathons, I mean I'm not running. This entire thing. There is a pace involved and it's about that consistency of being able to get it done regardless, getting through the uncomfortable Part.

Number four is awareness plus control equals power. When we zoom out and I love talking about this when we zoom out and look at what you've created or how far you've come, you can start to really understand that we have an amazing ability to do why? Because all of a sudden you have this awareness and you've been able to see how much you've controlled that which gives you power to move forward. You're not actually stuck. You're probably actually just too close to the process to see the growth. Sometimes we get stuck so much in the detail that it's hard to zoom out, but the reality is, when you zoom out, you can see that you do have the ability to adjust, to adapt, to reframe, to turn things around and make adjustments as needed and right. I think a lot of the time we neglect to understand how capable we really are and I challenge you if something's not working, be willing to shift. If it is working well, then celebrate it. But do zoom out and understand what's going on, how you've been tracking and are the things working, you are in control. If you're not happy with it, you can change it, and if you are happy with it, then own it right. You get the best of both worlds. Change it, and if you are happy with it, then own it right. You get the best of both worlds.

Part number five is don't forget to enjoy the process. Building anything, it takes a lot of time. Building anything meaningful takes a lot of time, but the reality is that time is set by you. So you need to make sure that if you're willing to spend one year, 10 years, five years, whatever it is, just enjoy the ride. Make sure you're having some fun along the sure that if you're willing to spend one year, 10 years, five years, whatever it is, just enjoy the ride. Make sure you're having some fun along the way. Whether you're building a business or a habit or training for something or a side project, or maybe you're just trying to simply be a better version of yourself, don't forget to pause, smile and breathe along the way, and I know it's a cliche, but the reality is we don't do it. I don't do it enough, and I'm trying to become more, more, more aware and self-aware of doing that myself.

The key here is to reward yourself. You want to celebrate those tiny wins. You want to go out for dinners and you want to enjoy the freedom, the progress and the version of you that's showing up right. You don't want to get to another version of yourself and realize you didn't even celebrate the small wins you went between from being a prior self to the self before, your version now and then your current version. You want to make sure you are giving yourself the credit where it is due. This is the reality of it. You're already doing the thing. Acknowledge that You're not going to become someone. You're becoming them right now. So give yourself the permission to reward yourself. Give yourself the permission to keep growing and do it in a way that's enabling you to thrive.

Thrive doesn't necessarily mean speed. Thrive doesn't mean you have to be the fastest at doing it. Thriving means you're able to show up, you're able to keep doing it consistently, and you're able to do it with no problems attached. Now, that's a little wishy-washy, because there's always going to be problems, but the reality is, when you change your mindset to grow slow, these problems just become small hurdles to overcome. Right, small hurdles, big hurdles at times, but we can get past them.

It's just about. How do we shift through them? How do we pass through them? How do we climb over them? How do we go through them? How do we pass through them? How do we climb over them? How do we go under them? How do we change the reality we're working in? And sometimes that's just environment, sometimes that's mental perspective, sometimes that's maybe we need the tools, better tools, to do it. Maybe we need to change our game plan All these different things, right? I mean, we can go on and on and on about this, but I think we can keep it short and sweet, right? This is how I'll wrap it up.

You don't need to sprint to prove anything, right? Sure, you can go sprint to prove to someone you're fast, but what's the point of that? Right, you want to be able to hold out as long as possible. So it's more about you know. Do you have the willpower, do you have the ability to keep showing up? Do you have the ability to you know? Yeah, have the guts to do what it's going to take over a long period of time. I'm forgetting the word that I want to say here, but resilience. Do you have the resilience? Right? That is really the question here, and you don't need to be five steps ahead to deserve a break.

Take a break when you've done the stuff that has gotten you to where you are, and that you're proud of it, when you feel happy right Now. There's a difference between feeling happy and satisfied. I'm happy, I'm not satisfied. I'm very content, very happy with what we've achieved. I need to celebrate that. I need to give myself a pat on the back and then we can move on to getting to that next thing. But if you do not celebrate, it actually starts to make this happiness and satisfaction become a little bit sour. And you don't need to wait till everything is perfect to feel proud. If you zoom out and you realize that, wow, look at what we've done, take a moment, be grateful, take a moment to appreciate what you have done.

I'm talking to myself here too, but this is more for you to really understand that you've got to grow slow, you've got to grow true and you've got to grow you. That is the only way to do it. By growing slow, by growing true, you will grow as an individual. When you grow slow, you're going to grow strong because you put the foundations in. You've got those brick layers. You're able to come back and build something stronger. I mean, reflect on something that you've built that is strong, and then you can reflect back and see that because of that, you're able to now thrive easier as you continue to progress and that journey over a long period of time starts to feel a lot, lot smaller. Look, I really appreciate you being here.

We have kept it short, we have kept it sweet, and that's the idea, because I want you guys to feel that we don't need to have all this information to be able to have all the answers. This is my perspective. This is stuff that I've reflected on recently. This is stuff that's been helping me, and I think it can inspire and motivate you to potentially have a fresh perspective, or a new perspective, to understand that it's okay to grow slow, it's okay to take the time that it's going to take. As long as you're doing something right, you can't expect something to fall out of nowhere and all of a sudden, your life has changed. Do one thing today that's going to get you closer to where you want to be.

Appreciate you being here. I hope it's hit home. Send it to someone that you think needs to hear it. Send it to someone. Message them and say hey look, just have a listen to this. You know it's really going to be like 13, 14 minute episode. I'd love to hear your perspective. Feel free to drop a comment, share a takeaway that you took away from this. I'll be here next week again doing it all again. And just remember this it's all about one intentional step at a time. Keep showing up, I'll keep showing up. I'll keep having these episodes weekly and we'll be back here again next week doing it all again. Will you Appreciate you? You have a wonderful day, cheers.