Stop Forcing Growth
We live in a world that rewards speed. Do more. Move faster. Show results. I know this voice well. I’ve chased it, lived by it, and burned out from it. The truth? Growth doesn’t come from force.
Growth comes from space.
During a season of my life when I felt empty and disconnected, I planted a seed. Every morning, I checked for progress and it seemed as though nothing was happening. Weeks went by. Still nothing. I started doubting. Did I do it wrong? Was the seed bad? Was this tiny thing ever going to grow?
Then, one ordinary Tuesday morning, I saw the smallest sprout pushing up through the dirt. I sat there in tears, in complete awe of what has just happened. What struck me wasn’t the sprout itself, but the realization that growth had been happening all along. I just couldn’t see it.
That tiny green shoot became a mirror. I had been forcing myself to “push harder” in life, the same way I expected that seed to show progress on my timeline. But just like the seed, I needed time, rest, and the right conditions not constant pressure.
So many of us link our worth to output, I know because I used to be one of them. It is what the institution of education grooms us for. We spends years of our core development finding worth by achieving productivity. We compare our pace to others. We believe slowing down means falling behind.
It’s not true.
When we live this way, we stop listening to what our lives are actually asking of us. We override exhaustion and ignore signals from our body and heart. We call it discipline, but often it’s fear. Courage Looks Different.
The culture we live in tells us courage is about powering through. But I’ve learned that real courage is often quieter. Courage is slowing down when everyone else is speeding up, it is saying no when yes feels easier. Courage is trusting that growth is happening even if you can’t see results yet. When we let ourselves root down first, we eventually rise stronger.
Here’s the shift that changed everything for me:
You don’t have to prove yourself.
You don’t have to earn your place.
You are worthy.
When you start from a place of worthiness, growth feels less like a performance and more like a rhythm. You begin to trust the process instead of fighting it. Creating space might mean resting when your body begs for it. It might mean letting go of one more commitment. It might mean being brave enough to be present, instead of productive. It’s in that space that creativity stirs again, that connection deepens, that you remember who you are.
So maybe your next brave step isn’t pushing harder, maybe it’s creating room for what’s already alive in you to surface. I dare you to ask yourself: What would happen if I stopped forcing and started listening? That’s where real growth begins.