Over the past couple of years, I’ve joined the ranks of people choosing a “word” for the year. This is a single word that resonates with where you are in your life and that you can use as a guiding star for the year ahead.

There are lots of ways to arrive at this word (perhaps I’ll create a blog post in future months to guide you through the process if you’re interested). Mostly, I just sit with my values and feelings for a few days or weeks until a single word surfaces that I recognize as my best teacher for the year.

For 2021, my word of the year is SLOW

IT ENCAPSULATES MANY THINGS FOR ME, INCLUDING:

• My intentions to be more present in life, instead of rushing through my days

• To always remember that I only get a few years on this planet and to cherish them fully

• That my children are almost both adults and to really be IN the last couple years of childhood I’ve got left with them

• To bring more calm and peace to my work, instead of defaulting to a frantic hustle approach

• As an offering of trust in life, to know that I will always show up and make things happen as they are needed

• To remind myself of my intention to decrease my participation in social behaviors that harm our Mother Earth — to live more slowly so that I have less of a negative ecological impact and deeper relationship with life

• As an affirmation that my best work is done with intention, slowness, and with people who also value this approach

• To keep myself clear that my life is my art and I’m in no hurry to get it over with (valuing the process over the product)

• As an invitation to go deeper into life, which requires slowing down and paying more attention

I’ve already used my mantra of SLOW several times this year when facing a decision. I’ve sat and asked myself “If I choose to do this thing, does it pull me deeper into slow or instead deeper into hustle culture?” It’s extremely illuminating and helpful as a barometer for choice-making!

Why Slow Should be a Solopreneur Business Value

When it comes to being “in business” we’re taught cliche mantras and philosophies such as “time is money” and tools to “be more efficient.” While time management is super useful to help us waste less time on things we don’t love doing, it also has a darker side as part of a larger hustle culture that promotes workaholism and over-productivity.

So here’s my official invitation to you to step on out of that train rushing nowhere and settle back into your ancient human bones that are begging for slowness.

Hustle culture is toxic. Humans aren’t meant to run, run, run and never rest. If we’re ever going to solve our ecological crises and lift up human rights, we’re going to have to slow the hell down.

Do you ever spend an afternoon lounging on the couch, reading a novel, sipping your favorite tea and suddenly out of nowhere you feel…GUILT…? That’s the voice of toxic productivity talking to you, telling you that only lazy people do those things — you should be scheduling out your day by the minute!

I’m here to tell you that’s absolutely bonkers. You are not a self-help project and you don’t need to be constantly “working on” yourself (or your business, which is essentially an extension of yourself). You’re not a machine or a cog in a machine — though it might often feel like it.

You are a living, breathing, glowing, expanding human being — full of life, complexity, and your ancestors. You are not a consumer, or a work-in-progress, or anything other than a dynamic organic part of the soul of this Earth.

A Short History of Slow

For millions of years, humans and their ancestors wandered this little blue and green planet. Their days were spent hunting, gathering, building, creating, storytelling, dreaming, caring for each other, caring for the land around them, and daydreaming in the ways only humans can.

They lived in small groups of related people, protecting and creating together. There were no clocks or alarms, no meetings with set timelines and agendas, no rushing or being late. They didn’t need stimulants to get them going in the morning, extensive planners to make sure they fit in every single to-do item into their days, or neurotoxins at night to help them wind down and drown their anxieties.

They just existed alongside all the other beings we share this planet with. Watching the ocean waves roll to and fro, pondering the growth of every living thing around them, and contemplating the gods of the lands they loved.

Yes, I am over-romanticizing their lives (I’m well aware of the ways in which their lives were brutal and hard). But my point is to shine a spotlight on the aspect of their existence that is in stark contrast to our own: they did not hustle or rush through life. They might need to run from a dangerous predator, but once the danger abated they were back to quiet living once again.

We, in contrast, are constantly running from tigers and lions all day long. (At least that’s what our nervous system thinks.)

We need a return to slow simply to help us become more human again and to relieve the mental struggles we all deal with as a result of hustle culture.

How to Use SLOW as a Guiding Star

In our businesses, it can be really tempting to jump into something simply because we don’t have a thorough understanding of our Why or How (and sometimes not even a clear picture of our What). We want to implement This Strategy or That 10-Step Plan that some big and famous marketer recommended.

Or we get an idea in the middle of the night and want to jump right into it the next morning instead of what we’d planned to do that day.

Now, I’m a Sagittarius so I definitely am the queen of spontaneous. I’m also a big fan of an intuitive business approach. But there’s a big difference between intuition and frantic action taking that doesn’t lead much of anywhere except to burnout.

It can be very useful to shed your need to be productive 24/7 and instead allow your intuition to slowly guide you in the right direction. It’s also important to notice when your intuition is guiding you in a direction that feels scary, so you reactively start busying yourself with all kinds of silly activities to distract yourself from taking that next scary step.

Creativity can be fast, yes. But mostly it’s a slow hunch that works itself out in a quiet, contemplative way in the background as you’re gardening, cooking dinner, and reading books to your 5-year-old.

CREATIVITY IS LIFE AND IS IMBUED INTO EVERYTHING YOU DO.

Your work is your life and your life is your work. Slowing down allows you to truly embody that and start to live it with courage.

Hustle Culture = Scarcity

We live in a society that’s built on the idea of lack and not enough to go around. Our ancestors lived on lands that were “free”, in homes they built with their own hands, with energy they generated themselves, and with food they grew or caught with their own hands. They lived with a humble sort of abundance for most of their lives.

We live in a society that is the opposite in almost every way. Our society is competitive, hoards objects and wealth, and panics constantly about money (which is how we get the things we need to live, so it’s understandable).

We are socialized to put the getting of money into the center of our lives. Our adult selves structure our days around the getting of money and the keeping of money. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that at an individual level — we do what we have to do to survive.

But it’s when we realize that the attitude and mentality of lack is eating our souls that we realize that we need a new relationship with hustle and with our style of acquiring money.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing what you need to do to feed your family and keep a roof over their heads. But this blog post is an invitation to start dreaming about the ways you can approach that process differently.

• How can you slowly move your relationship with your work from a fear-based panicky hustle to a slow, deep relationship of trust in your own capacity?

• How can you employ strategy that’s founded on your intrinsic wisdom and deep knowing, instead of strategy that’s externally coming from people who are (unintentionally) trying to scare you and reinforce the story of scarcity?

8 Tips for Integrating SLOW into Your Work and Life

Now that you understand the why, I want to leave you with some examples of how. You can develop these ideas over time to make them fit you, your lifestyle, and your own creative process. I offer them simply as a jumping off point to get your wheels turning.

1) DEVELOP AN INNER VOICE OF WISDOM — USE THAT VOICE WHEN THE NAGGING VOICE OF SOCIETY SHOWS UP.

As you embrace more rest and calm, you might hear the voice of guilt in your head. “What are you doing? You could be writing a blog post right now. Or developing your new program. Or writing that course content. You don’t have time for play!”

Your inner voice of wisdom can calmly chime in to remind that scared little voice that you do your best work when you’ve had a good break from it. That you do best with a well-rested brain and quiet mind. That your moments of peace or leisurely walks are just as important to your work as the work itself.

2) CREATE SOME FLEXIBLE WORK STRUCTURE SO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND WHEN. BUILD IN PLENTY OF SLOW AND REST.

As much as some of us might not be naturals when it comes to structure (*ahem* fellow Sagittarians and free-spirited souls…), it really does give us more freedom in work and life. If we can schedule in a plan for writing those blog posts and developing those programs, then we can quiet the part of our mind that is always worried we won’t get it all done.

Don’t worry. If you’re a freedom loving soul like I am, your structure doesn’t have to be written in stone. Build in flexibility! Make your blocks of time interchangeable, so you can go with your gut feelings, cyclic being, and intuition while still making significant progress on your projects. Scheduling in SLOW is an important part of ensuring that you don’t run yourself ragged and get burnt out.

3) SPEND PLENTY OF TIME REFLECTING ON YOUR VALUES AND PRIORITIES. AND REVISIT THEM OFTEN FOR TWEAKING AND ADJUSTMENTS.

The whole point of being a solopreneur is so you can live a life that YOU are in charge of and so you can share your light with those who need it. It’s the beauty of changing up your work pace and process whenever you have aha moments, and not being a slave to someone else’s goals and processes. You get to build your business around YOUR life. And it’s important to do just that.

Infuse your business structure with all the values, philosophies, and things you prioritize in your life. When something is just not sitting right with your gut feelings, listen to that and spend some time reflecting on it. Operating your business from a values based place means you create a container that allows your light to shine even brighter.

4) ALWAYS PLAN IN TIME FOR ACTIVITIES THAT LOOK LIKE “DOING NOTHING.”

As a society-skeptical question asker, I’ve always balked at the idea that we should rush through life like crazy people and save all the good stuff for this weird time at the end we call “retirement.” In my heavily biased opinion, that’s a ridiculous expectation for beings that only get a few years on this planet. I want to also have the good stuff NOW.

So please infuse all the beautiful activities that you love into your life. Please do them now. Allow them to inspire your work. To allow you to process your mind through your body. To grow your relationship with this beautiful miracle of life that we find ourselves in the middle of. If it moves your soul, your life and business need you to do it. This week, today, right now.

5) IF YOU HAVE KIDS, ALLOW THEM INTO YOUR WORK.

Speaking from experience, it can be really easy to just get things done and not want to involve kids in the messy process of our work. They’re loud, needy, and make everything take much longer. But throughout history and pre-history our children weren’t separate from our work. They were right there, observing and learning what it means to be an adult in that culture.

You don’t have to find a way to involve them at all times. Please get space from them so you can work, think, and grow community with other adults. But do share your work with them in ways that feel good to you. Especially if you as living a life that’s counter to our harmful cultural stories, they need to know how you see the world and help others in it. They need to see a new and healthier way to be an adult.

6) MAKE SPACE FOR HUMANNESS, GROWTH, NEW LIFE.

Your business is your life and your life is your business (when you’re a solopreneur at least). Let your personal growth inform your business’ structure and purpose. Take time off when you need it. If you add a new baby to your family, please don’t try to work through your sacred postpartum time.

Life is ceremony. You aren’t a machine. Go deep into your bones and plan for these intentional spaces of changed attention. Prioritize time and space away from work for these ceremonies and life transitions.

7) BE FLEXIBLE IN RESPONSE TO THE WEB OF LIFE.

Things happen in the world around us and we have to be prepared to adapt and deal with new realities. The global pandemic of the past year has taught us this lesson in ways we haven’t yet completely internalized or understood.

Making peace with the uncertainty and mystery of life teaches us that we need to build this flexible approach to work and life into our structures and goals. It’s okay and necessary to grieve for your old, beautiful plan that was disrupted. But then keep your energy flowing in the direction of acceptance and adaptation. Create a new beautiful plan that will support this new worldview and new life demands.

8) BUILD COMMUNITY, FOSTER COLLABORATION, EXPAND YOUR CAPACITY TO TRUST.

An inherent value in our modern business mentalities and capitalistic structures is competition. When you think of competition, take a moment to tune into how it feels in your body. Does it inspire fear, panic, worry, suspicion, concern, a need to control? Our modern systems were built from a toxic masculinity perspective (dominance, imperialism, suppression, wealth accumulation) and so if it feels wrong in your body, that’s why.

Changing this story means learning a new way to dream about your business. It’s about seeing yourself as a star in a constellation of community, all working together for the common goal of global healing and renewal. It’s about using that inner voice of wisdom to calm your fears of someone else taking your clients or being your “competition.” It’s also about knowing yourself and your work so clearly that you understand that you can’t help everyone and don’t need to.

Build your community. Learn to trust others. Make business friends and find ways to collaborate. Build dreams together. Send clients that aren’t quite right for you to another colleague who you suspect they are perfect for. Create a cohesive community that’s built on love, trust, and healing. Approaching your work in this way only grows your capacity for walking your purpose in a beautiful, bright, brilliant way.

You’re More than a Strategy or a Plan

The point of this article is to remind you that you’re a dynamic human being, imbued with the soul of the earth, universe, and stars. You aren’t a cog in a machine. You’re not a human doing. And you carry deep wisdom inside of you that you can trust.

Yes, it’s very helpful to educate yourself on how to interact with this strange society. It’s extremely useful to learn skills like nonviolent communication. Healing your own issues and traumas, then learning healthier ways of interacting with others is a key part of creating a business that is also healing to others.

But you don’t get to these places through rushing. You get to them by slowly and intentionally pouring your heart and soul into them. You bring up your own intuitions and wisdom, then you learn to trust it and build on it over time.

You are capable. You can do this. Your aversion to the hustle-centric business culture is not wrong.

Let’s human our business interactions and create more soul in our work — together! The more of us that stand up and say no more to a toxic culture that depends on our self-harming over-productivity, the more people who can feel validated and also start saying no. And the more of us that can say YES to slow being, living, and working.

The more of us who are doing these things, the more we can heal this planet and the beings that call her Mother and home.

YES, YOUR WORK REALLY IS THAT IMPORTANT.