When Progress Feels Out of Rhythm

A note on slowing down, simplifying, and finding harmony through values

I often get frustrated over incongruence in progress.

I feel stuck. I feel urgency to correct and optimize.

If everything could be done with perfect rhythm in the orchestra of strategy, I might be happy.

I feel the pull to systematize and reduce inefficiencies in workflows, but it gets overwhelming when it’s all at once.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m doing too much, if I have too many irons in the fire, or if I’m not disciplined enough.

I’ve also been wondering a lot lately about if I’m doing the right thing.

Turns out, I’m doing a lot of the wrong things.

Well, not wrong, but things that don’t fit in with my values right now in my life.

About half of my projects turned out to be misaligned when I compared them to my values.

For example, I’ve been really into language learning. I enjoy the thought of being able to connect deeper to the Human Experience, and the ability to think in ways that transcend one or two languages is very appealing.

But it’s not practical for me to spend my time like a student enrolled full-time (although I wish I could).

So, I cut down the number of languages I’ve been learning (poorly) from five to two. This should do several things for me:

Most importantly, it’ll help me connect to my heritage and expand my day-to-day opportunities to understand and connect with others.

It’ll also help me to focus and learn better, with more progress.

I’ve chosen German and Spanish. The core values driving this decision are Fearless Understanding, which I consciously identified early this year, and Pragmatism.

Intentionally, I’m studying two very different languages. I have experience with French, another romance language, and, well, English, which is a germanic language with strong Latin influences.

I’m grateful for the foundations of language learning I established in school learning French, for the scattered effort to learn Latin, and a recent interest in Mandarin. Now I’m off to more applicable and values-aligned study sessions.

So the next time I realize I’m stuck in some areas, instead of working harder, I’m going to work more aligned with my values.

What else could I cut from my life to make it more values-aligned?

Stay Aligned,

Broc