All of us at some point in our life have sat and watched sand flow through an hourglass. The sand falls slowly at first, then as the top of the hourglass clears out a bit, it starts to flow faster, until eventually the last few grains finally trickle through.
What if you were anxious about how fast the sand was flowing and you tried to help it along by pushing down on the top of the sand? Adding pressure to the top of the sand causes it to compact and flow slower. The slower it flows, the more anxious you get, and the harder you push until almost no sand is flowing at all. Then you would have to shake things up to get it flowing again!
That’s often what happens when we’re anxious about our goals. We may be taking the right actions, but because it’s moving slowly we push too hard and frantically try other activities. Powerful, graceful success is not frantic but relaxed and smooth.
The hourglass is already set up for success. There is sand in the top, an opening in the middle, and gravity will do the rest of the work. (Of course, if the hourglass were lying on its side or had glue in the middle, it would not work, just like 95% of the websites in the world never make any money because they were not set up for success to start with.) As long as we’re taking the right steps and things are moving, patience is very useful. We can relax into our success rather than forcing it to happen.
If you’d like some help setting up your business for success, send me an email and let’s schedule a time to talk.
Steve Johnsen is a marketing strategist, a business coach, and the Founder of Cloud Mountain Marketing. He is also the author of the Amazon #1 best-seller, 5 Easy Steps to Make Your Website Your #1 Employee.
Leave a Reply