Read time: 10 min

Hey my friend!

You can live and pursue your goals in a better way — without hurry and without selling your soul. I want to show you that in this article. I will also share 3 principles that will help you to slow down because they help me (yes, still helping).

I used to obsess over my dreams. I longed to achieve them quickly. The desire for success consumed me. I felt stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed. Success was above my wife, having kids, and even God.

It made me miserable.

I couldn't focus on my day job. Rushing thoughts and worries plagued my mind. They were about my business, money and time freedom in the future. Some days I felt on top of the world; the most days I felt crushed and anxious. It was a roller coaster (not a fun one).

You Won't Beat Hurry With Productivity

At first, staying organized was my go-to. I thought if I could schedule every detail of my life, I wouldn't worry, hurry, and stress out. It didn't work well (surprise, surprise!).

Why?

Because I couldn't easily switch from one thing to another. There was always a residue from a previous task (especially the one I obsessed over). Have you ever felt like you cannot shake off the thoughts from a task for some time while attempting to do a new task? That always happens to me. It has a name - attention residue. Look it up.

It also forced me to fill the empty slots with as many activities as possible.

Don't mistake — being organized is important, and I still use schedules. But productivity only eased my symptoms but didn't cure my ailment. It didn't solve the underlying problem of heart and mind. I was living in the future. I was impatient.

Need For Change

About a month ago, I realized that

I wanted to slow down.

I wanted to breathe without hurry or constraint.

I wanted to take my time and be present in each moment.

I wanted to love my wife better and care about our future family.

I wanted to feel connected to the Lord, being in His love, peace, and stillness.

I wanted to spend unhurried time with my wife and our future kids.

I wanted to get lost in my creative work and be present.

I wanted to silence anxious and stressful thoughts.

I wanted to stop rushing.

I didn't figure it all out but I found certain principles that helped me to slow down significantly. If you're reading this then you might be feeling the same way. There is a better way to live and build a business.

Ultimately, by whose standards and timeline you have to "get there?" You do it TO yourself. I had to ask myself this hard question. If you can pressure yourself for no reason, you can also slow down for no reason. Make a decision to change your lifestyle to slow down. If not, you'll hurry your soul away and miss the life God gave you to bear fruit in.

You don't have to believe in God to realize that grinding and worrying about your dreams or your business is harmful for you. It's greed in us. It's selfishness in us — I want to achieve my goals, my dreams. You can still do that without being so focused on yourself if you take your time. Of course, something must give. You can save your soul in exchange for longer wait.

Fundamentally, why do you even want to build a business and earn more?

What's ironic is that the goal is to achieve freedom. (First of all, true freedom is in Jesus Christ because it comes with the change of one's entire being. Only the Maker can do it). But even if you don't believe, the more you hurry and obsess over your goal, it enslaves you. You work more; you worry more; you want more; you get crushed by mere thought of failing. I have been there.

3S Framework: 3 Simple Principles to Slow Down

There are three fundamental principles that helped me to slow down (still helping ;). I like thinking about these in terms of macro and micro levels.

1) Simplify

This verse perfectly sums up this principle. I found that simplifying helps me to slow down and build a life & business gradually.

Following tactics are very easy and actually helpful. Simple is always better.

Macro

Reduce the number of your big goals.

Don't have more than 3. Life is short, so you have limited time to pursue a handful of big goals to their full potential. Having a lot of major goals will divide your attention and create more projects and tasks on your plate. That will lead to hurrying even more. Ask yourself: "Why do I need/want to achieve more things in life?" Life ends and everything with it. It's a paradox — nothing is important and everything is important at the same time — because everything is temporary, and only your relationship with God is eternal, and He also tells us that what we do in this life is important. Back to number of goals. I have struggled for the longest time to rein my ambition so I get it! But now I'm focusing only on growing in the Lord, raising a God-honoring family with my wife, and building an online business.

Simplify your goals.

This was also a struggle for me. At first, I thought I wanted to make $5-10 million a year with my business and have luxurious life for my family and myself. But then I asked myself, "Why?" Then I've realized what I truly want. All I want is time and money freedom. So I've decided to simplify my goal: $500k - $1m a year and work 4-6 hours a day. If you only want to be independent, you don't need crazy goals. Humble your ambitions. Ambitions are good. I have nothing against them. But at what point do they become too destructive?

Micro

Reduce the number of projects and tasks.

By reducing the number of your big goals, these will go down as well. This is crucial especially if you have other obligations such as full-time job, family, etc. For example, I try to only write content every weekday. On the weekends, I might do 2-3 tasks which are filming, editing, brainstorming. Here's the rule for you: have no more than 3 tasks per day, ideally one, for a given big goal. That way you will simplify your days and reduce stress. Also, you can read how I reverse-engineer my big goals to needle-moving tasks I need to do consistently here.

Simplify your "how."

I will just give you my examples:

1. Instead of growing on multiple social media platforms, I picked one - YouTube

2. Instead of doing a service business, I chose to do a high-leverage online business

3. Instead of making complex videos, I try to make simple videos (which also creates authenticity)

4. Instead of creating new thumbnails every time, I try to stick to a certain style of thumbnails.

I hope this makes sense. In other words, simplify your systems.

Finally, I got a very good image to demonstrate this entire principle:

2) Slow Down On Purpose

The idea behind the second principle is this: extend your time horizon on purpose on macro and micro levels.

Macro

Expect and aim to achieve your big goals in a longer time horizon.

For example, instead of giving yourself 3 years, give yourself 5-7. I would even say do it as long as it takes. Anything is possible with a long enough time horizon. If you did one or two things consistently your entire life, it would be unreasonable for you not to "win." Reset your expectations. By whose deadline do you live? It's only you who create them artificially. When you do this, you will move in a sustainable pace without hurry.

You will breathe again.

So write in your notebook or on a stick note or just decide and keep reminding yourself that you give yourself more time because you don't need to achieve everything now. Who do you want to impress? If you're Christian, the only one you need to impress is God but He doesn't get impressed by the worldly things.

Some will say, "Well, it's to prove to myself," or "Prove to my future self!" But why do you need to prove to yourself anything? Is your self-esteem that low that you don't even believe what you think about yourself? Just do it but at your own pace.

Micro

Give yourself more time for the tasks and projects.

For example, I've decided to spend 2 weeks instead of a week writing a newsletter/YouTube video. With that, I've also given myself permission to make an extra video if I want to or am able to. But it isn't a requirement.

I am taking my time.

I used to worry and stress about making a YouTube video every week. But since I extended my micro time horizon, it feels refreshing to make content. I don't hurry anymore. If I miss a day because of family and friends gatherings, it doesn't affect my progress as much and I am okay. It's just more sustainable and enjoyable way of living.

To put it differently, progress is like a slow river; it's a calm current that shapes the banks over time. Success is gentle, consistent flow. And this is not an excuse for laziness. I like hard work and think it's important. We're Christians are called to work diligently like for the Lord and not a man (Colossians 3:23). And sometime you will have intensive seasons. Embrace them. But don't live in a hurry because that's harmful for your health and soul.

3) Sit In God's Presence and With His Word (Bible)

I am going to break the pattern here. This section doesn't have macro and micro levels. Also, a disclaimer: I don't expect you to do it if you're not a follower of Christ. But you can know Him! I promise He will give you rest better than any tactics.

Jesus says, "Come to me…" When I feel exhausted from doing, chasing wind in this life, feeling anxious about the future, and being consumed by burdens, this verse helps me to slow down. The key words are at the beginning. He says, "Come to me…" So go to Him!

I used to start my days by working on my business. Those days were filled with anxiety, overwhelm, and stress. Like I described at the beginning, I couldn't even focus on my day job.

One day, I was so convicted and challenged by one of my brothers in Christ at the Bible study. It was to take seriously spending a quite time with the Lord in His word and in prayer before hustling. Now, I start my days with that no matter how long I have or no matter what I need to do. I am not perfect, and I skip days sometimes, so that's okay! But spending time with God first thing in the morning, changed my days.

I've actually slowed down. I've started feeling peaceful again. It was actually pretty crazy how that worked.

And it's not to boast about myself, it's a testament to His power.

Here is my challenge for you: ground yourself in Him first thing in the morning BEFORE you work on your business. Start with 15 minutes then go up from there. But please do, it will change your life!

This practice or principle slows my heart, my mind, and my soul down. I get reminded that there is no need to hurry in this life.

If nothing else, I want you to take away this — that I had to learn, too — in order to truly slow down you should believe that wanting less and moving slowly is a better way to live. There should be a mental or heart switch. They say that all these sacrifices (your family, faith, health) are worth it but they're not. You can achieve your goals without hurrying. If you take a little longer, you'll be alright.

Well, that's it! Thank you for reading!

Check out this newsletter about a business model that is best for a slow life.

Catch you later, friend! Byeeeeeeee!

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P.P.S. Bereket means abundance and blessing in my native language - Turkmen.