The long way is the fast way

#28 on persistance, changing our environment and our evolving needs

Hey 2,260+ friends, it’s Hannah here!

Welcome to another issue of Floating Thoughts. I’ve had back-to-back trips and then I got ill, so hence the little break in hearing from me but let’s get to it ⤵︎

1. On persistence

Small, consistent actions compound.

We may not be able to see or feel the progress right away, but that does not mean we aren't progressing.

Because the power of a slow and steady approach is only evident over time.

Before we know it, we've built something remarkable!

But only by letting go of our need for instant gratification, because the process of reaching our goals might just be the best part.

And let’s face it, the Grand Canyon wasn’t formed in a day 😅

“A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence”

- Jim Watkins

2. On changing our environment

This month, I was lucky to spend a week exploring Portugal.

I also went with my family to Switzerland for a funeral and party, celebrating the life of my dad’s best friend - the one I spoke about back in April here!

It’s only in stepping away that I realise how inefficient I am with my time, spending a lot of the day in ‘work mode’ without any set hours or clearly defined boundaries.

Tim Ferriss talked about this on a recent podcast:

“Work expands to fill the time available.”

For those of us who enjoy spending a lot of time working, Tim suggests that the only way for work not to take over our lives is to schedule activities, like exercise or social events in the evenings, to prevent us from working late.

These pre-booked commitments that we ideally make with other people that prevent us from working late and overriding our boundaries.

But it’s also surprising how much we can achieve in small blocks of time between activities.

3. On Quoted Visually

It’s been heartwarming to see some of my course community members get into the swing of making and sharing visuals online!

For example, we have Ellie Fernandez, who finally took the plunge and posted her first visual and Ryan O’Connor who’s on a roll and who’s “feeling much stronger with the visuals”.

Aside from this, I have been building a new website 👀

You’ll laugh but I recently spent £250 on a template for Shopify, thinking that it was going to be THE template I would use for years 💰💸

But I started to encounter formatting issues (see if you can spot them here) and paying for help wasn’t going to be fast or cheap, so I’ve cut my losses and switched to a free template and things are working out much better now.

The lesson: our needs are changing all the time.

• We think we need long-term solutions for our current problems but we don’t. We just need solutions that work for us in the here and now.

• This takes the pressure off us too, because we can make trade-offs. Our solutions don’t have to be ‘perfect’.

• Better to be in a position to adapt and evolve how we show up when things change than to be fix-minded and set in our ways because change really is the only constant.

What change have you encountered recently in your life?

That’s a wrap! Feel free to reply to this email if you have any questions, requests or feedback. I will respond at my earliest oppory.

Big love,

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