No Need to Rush

When you really want something in life, it’s easy to want to rush to get there.

You want to get to that next financial goal. You want to get to that next level of business growth. You want to get to that dream job or that promotion you’ve been working on.

It’s easy to rush, rush, rush. Just put in the work and effort and take tons of action to try to get there.

But does it work?

From the clients I’ve worked with who have attempted this approach (and of course from my own life, too, when I’ve failed to practice what I preach), no, it doesn’t. It generally leads to more effort and more rushing.

And if the law of attraction is true, then that would make perfect sense.

But here’s the thing: when you feel that urge to rush, that comes out of a place of lack. That comes out of fear, out of need, out of desperation.

You feel that if you rush, you will get to where you want to get faster, and things will be better for you.

But again, the law of attraction doesn’t allow that to be true.

Doing anything out of a place of lack — of fear, need, or desperation — just leads to more of those things.

Even if you reach the intended goal, you’ll just settle on something else you need to reach in order to be happy, and the endless chase will continue.

The truth is, there’s no rush. Everything always works out.

Rumi put it best when he said, “What you seek is seeking you.”

What you want is already actively trying to come into your life. There’s nothing you have to do. In fact, the best approach is to just allow it to come to you, effortlessly.

That may seem hard to believe because we’re so used to the way of force and huge effort. But, the harder you try, the more you hold it away from you, because what you want just isn’t a match to trying hard.

When you try to force anything, you are out of the flow.

If instead you could just be still and allow it all to happen naturally, it would actually likely happen a lot more quickly. And when it did happen, it would be so natural and effortless, you’d barely feel like you did anything.

The Tao Te Ching reflects this wisdom perfectly when it says:

“Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?” (ch. 15)

Imagine it like a turbulent pond where the water is stirred up. It is cloudy because there is so much activity and it disturbs the sediment underneath.

When that water stills and the mud settles, as the Tao Te Ching puts it, the water becomes clear and calm.

This is like your life. When you rush about trying to achieve your goals, the pond of your life is turbulent and you can’t see clearly. When instead you remain still, the pond settles and inner guidance and inspiration effortlessly arise to the surface. You know exactly what to do next, or else things just click into place in the perfect way to bring you what you want, sometimes with minimal action on your part.

Stillness is the key. Stillness is the opposite of rushing.

And stillness need not necessarily mean inaction. You can act out of a place of inner turmoil, or out of a place of inner stillness. It’s about your inner state, not your outer action.

“The Master observes the world
but trusts his inner vision.
He allows things to come and go.
His heart is open as the sky.” (Tao Te Ching, ch. 12)

I’ll give an example, even though it’s a small thing but it illustrates my point well.

In writing this post, I wrote several paragraphs, then began to feel like it was getting off-track and uninspired. So I deleted the last couple paragraphs I wrote and stepped away for about an hour.

Then ideas started to come to me, without me even really thinking about the post. So I sat down again and started writing, and it came much more easily.

While this is a small example, I have found that it works the same for larger goals, too. Do what you’re inspired to do — and when there is no more inspiration, then stop. Let the Universe do its part. Give up the need to control the process.

When you feel that urge to rush, realize that you are acting against the flow. Return to a place of stillness, and let the inspiration arise naturally. Trust that you will know exactly what to do, when the time is right.

If you can act with the flow instead of against it, you’ll be astonished at how perfectly everything falls into place for you.

Let me end with one more quote from the Tao Te Ching that says it better than I could:

“Open yourself to the Tao,
then trust your natural responses;
and everything will fall into place.” (ch. 23)