Pace

Today in my reflection journal, I stumbled on a simple but powerful realization. There was a quote that nudged me to think about the pace at which I work and how my soul, like in Psalm 23, longs to be refreshed.

Here’s the heart of what I’m realizing: I often work as if I have to squeeze sixteen hours of urgency into an eight-hour day. I rush myself, set imaginary deadlines for tasks that don’t really need them, and end up creating my own stress. It’s like I’ve got this inner micromanager turning everything into a high-stakes deadline, when in reality, I can just move at the pace of the time I have.

Take my blog writing, for instance. Sometimes I challenge myself to write a post in ten minutes just for fun. But if I don’t finish, I can just stop and pick it up later. There’s no real consequence, and yet I often treat it like the sky will fall if I don’t hit some imaginary finish line.

It hit me that this might be leftover from years of dissertation deadlines—where everything was on a strict clock. Now that I’m done with that chapter, I’m learning to let my mind and body align with the actual time I have. If I have thirty minutes, I’ll work for thirty minutes and let that be enough. The goal is to bring a more playful, nourishing spirit to each task, rather than letting those self-imposed deadlines become little tyrants.

Closing Thought:

So that’s my takeaway: working at the pace of the time I actually have and trusting that it’s okay to pick things up later. It’s a little shift, but it’s bringing a lot more peace into my day.

Have you ever analyzed your pace?