Don’t Rush the Thing

Photo by Martin Adams on Unsplash

I was happily typing away on the bus recently, preparing a new article detailing some reflections from a recent coffee walk. I was writing it as a trial to see how a new format I was envisiging would work out.

Except what I was drafting didn’t fit with the format I wanted to create.

Whilst I was detailing reflections, I wasn’t able to do it in a conversation, dialetic way, because of the nature of what I was trying to recount. The situation didn’t lend itself to the new format.

Yet, for whatever reason, I decided that I had to trial the format, even though I hadn’t had an actual ‘cuppa chat.’ I just had to get something out.

We’ve all been there. Sitting on an idea for a while. Waiting for a while. Getting impatient and then trying to do something that isn’t the right fit just so you can start and be seen to make progress.

There is a difference between waiting for the right moment and not taking any action at all. I didn’t have a ‘cuppa chat’ to reflect on. But I tried to squeeze a reflective piece into a chat format because I first had this idea a few weeks ago. Like it’s not allowed to have an idea and sit on it until you can do something with with.

Thankfully, I enjoy writing (who would have thought!?) so it was a fun use of time anyway, even if the draft isn’t going to be published. It helped reinforce my idea and is something to try a bit later.

We have to come back to what’s important and what’s in front of us. What demands our attention, even if it means it’s not exactly what we want to be working on at that moment. Cuppa Chats will happen, just later.

I’m reminded, yet again, to focus on what matters. To be attentive to what is happening around and respond appropriately. Not to try and get something done just for the sake of it. To take my time. Be patient. Stick to more reflective or blog style pieces until I can trial a different conversational format.

Don’t rush the thing.