A few years ago, my husband and I got comfy on the sofa, made some popcorn, and on a cool fall night, watched a movie called Sully.
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| Oregon Coast |
This movie is based on an actual person: Chesley Burnett “Sully” Sullenberger. He was the guy who landed the plane in the Hudson River. You know, the pilot who saved everyone’s life on a plane that went down after a bird strike!
The movie was fantastic. As usual, Tom Hanks did an outstanding job portraying a real, likable, and based-in-real-life person, pilot Sullenberger.
While the movie was riveting from start to finish, one single line from the whole movie stood out to me. It stood out to me so much, that I wrote it down almost immediately after the movie (into my phone) so I wouldn’t forget it.
While the Character Sully is talking to someone early on the phone, he says, “It’s all about the timing. You can accomplish anything if you’re not in a hurry.” Or something very close to this.
Those words were like a bolt of lightning hitting me in the heart.
Those words were Truth.
I tend to believe (like others) that if I can’t have success right now then it’s not worth obtaining. I'm so ready to have what I want and have it now, that I'm unwilling to wait for the very thing I want even if it takes time to achieve.
This new concept of slowing down made my mind spin. It was like a long-lost secret that had been buried in a treasure book that had finally come to life for me.
What if I actually took that advice? What if I chose to take that approach to everything I did in life? Would I see results if I slowed down?
The only way I would know for certain was to do it. But the way to do this had a two-fold approach: I had to focus on what I wanted to see happen, even though I couldn't see the final product yet. And I had to do it in a slow, methodical way.
I had to do things at an unhurried pace even if it felt like everyone was getting ahead of me. Even if it felt like I was leaving myself behind.
I decided to implement this “not being in a hurry” thing into my vintage clothing business first. I started to grow my inventory piece by piece, increasing it steadily and gradually, and now nearly eight years after seeing that movie, my business is more successful than I’d imagined it could be.
I began to write that book I wanted to write. And page by page, though it felt like a snail’s pace, it began to emerge. I completed it and made this "impossible" thing a reality.
Now, it's just a matter of editing and submitting it (albeit slowly) to finally get it to where that book needs to be.
Little by little, things accumulate. Much like the incredible tenets of compounding interest.
I began to believe in this for my marriage and friendships. I began to believe I could have what I wanted if I was smart enough to be patient about the process in whatever my heart desired.
It's kind of like perfecting a golf swing. My husband has been doing this for years, even changing his swing. It's a slow process but it's one he's willing to work at - constantly - to make it a reality even if it takes many more years to accomplish.
Other trivial things like collecting vintage dinnerware, are a perfect example. They're pieces I told myself I was only going to get through thrifting and yard sales. I didn't want to purchase them via retail. I didn't want to spend the money. And because of that, I literally had people tell me this was an impossibility. That "you can't find this stuff in thrift stores anymore."
That only made me want to prove them wrong. And I did.
Over three years later, I have hundreds of pieces of my vintage Pyrex because of daily persistence in looking for them, thrifting them, and patiently going from thrift store to yard sale – and often coming out empty-handed – and creating the collection I could see in my mind.
Even my health, and the few issues plaguing me, while they’re not healed yet, I know they’re on the way. I’m doing all the right things to become well.
The hardest part with health is not only the desire to be healed but also waiting for that healing. Yet, if I keep taking it one day at a time, and choose to keep working at it (probably the hardest part), results will come.
Even if it doesn't come, doing the best I can with what I've been given is up to me.
The movie, Sully, wasn't the biggest blockbuster or the highest-grossing or the most Academy-award-winning-est movie ever made. But that single line changed my outlook on everything around me. It borrowed deep into my heart as a bit of wisdom I never want to forget.
Sully, choosing to be patient with his actions while flying a plane that was going down, probably saved his life and everyone else’s on board. Calm patience is life-giving and life-saving. And just like Sully said, "Anything is possible if you're not in a hurry."
This concept is counterculture to what we see, hear and read. According to the latest Nike commercials, we should want to be number one and we need to be it now. And if we don't want that, then we're losers. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth
Good things take time. And guess what? We're still doing great things even though we haven't reached our goals yet. We're winners when we slow down.
This is truly the ultimate in slow living.
If we take that desire for success - in whatever we want - and slow it down, and invite ourselves to steep in what we're doing - not as a race to the finish line, but a journey to the goal - we're bound to succeed.
-Heather
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