I was rereading a book for probably the 20th time the other day and it was still just as good as the first time I read it. It always amazes me when that happens! This author has been writing books for over 40 years and apparently is still good at what she does, but these days she's only publishing 1-2 books each year, which is forever in reader time, especially considering that some authors are able to publish a good (re-readable) book every couple of months. There are so many different aspects of success that we could unpack in all of this, but I want to focus on the time aspect (and for the sake of simplicity I'll stick with the book publishing example, but this can apply to any success journey you're on).
First, sometimes it doesn't matter how long things take, as long as they're almost always worth it. As long as it doesn't become a moot point (i.e. you cross the finish line long after people have a need for the product or service), your focus can be more on getting the job done well and providing a real solution to the problem than pumping out sub-par work as fast as you can.
Second, you may be absolutely thrilled to publish a book once a year, while someone else may only feel successful if they publish 4 or 5 books, which means that if you choose to, you've got room to grow. I believe we should be growing throughout our lives, and one of the aspects we can grow in is getting faster at doing things. Advances and changes over time can be good or bad, but they always present us with new ways of doing things. It's up to us to decide if a new way of doing things will help or if it will actually end up taking more time away from our important work (do you really need another app or calendar or can you just go ahead and get it done?).
Third, be open to some flexibility on the time aspect. Schedules can be absolutely fantastic, and they can also be what hurts your chances of success. Sometimes we get faster when we settle into a routine, but sometimes it's those routines that don't give us the freedom or creativity we need to really get things done. Life doesn't work as well around the same rigid schedules that it used to (i.e. working 9-5, working Monday-Friday etc.) because of how quick and transitory so many aspects of our lives are today. So maybe you're not giving yourself enough time or you're giving yourself too much time, or you're not being flexible about when you schedule that time in throughout your day/week/month, or maybe you're in a season that you're able to give bigger blocks of time to the work and you know that next month you won't be able to give as much.
So maybe what you need to do is reconsider the time you're giving to the work you're doing. Maybe you're ready to understand how you use time and learn (or relearn) to better manage your time, and that's where you should start before you randomly start changing things or trying to grow in ways that you're really not ready for. But don't let time be a crutch or a rut when it comes to your success, let it be one of the tools that help you be successful.
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