Are you a Slow-Start Sloth?
How long have you been building that dream of yours?
When your ambitions don’t take your capacities into consideration you just might find yourself being the Slow-Start Sloth.
I know, it’s not the sexy journey you envisioned when you began on this path. Everywhere online you’re a click away from another quick way to achieve your goals, another shortcut to rake in cash, and another small fee before you’re on your way to total success and ultimate fame.
But much like the children’s Hare and Tortoise story, the promises of easy wins will often give you short gains before you achieve burnout as your finish line.
We are the sloth when we are dealing with:
- Minimal cash flow
- Disorganization
- Lack of Clarity
- Isolation
- Mental, Physical or Relational Health barriers
While you build something worthwhile, you keep hitting obstacles along the road and wonder if you’re supposed to be skating through some other life you didn’t pick.
Your first sales weren’t what you expected,
Your task list filled up faster than you were able to manage,
Your support system no longer understands what you’re trying to achieve (and their patience is waning like a retiring tide.)
Your original ideas feel stale, and technology moved faster than you could keep up.
Your loved ones need your attention, (and you want to give it to them!)
There are 10,000 reasons why it takes time to build a dream. So many have given up half way through and the world missed out on the impact-makers who didn’t have the strength to take it slow.
But if you’re a Sloth…
- You pack unusual strength
Sloths are slow but they are 3x stronger than a human. What they lack in speed, they make up in force.
As a Slow-Start Sloth, you don’t have to be zipping around and shooting to the finish lines with unnecessary haste; instead, you use what you’re good at and get to where you are going without missing the valuable information offered by the scenery.
What valuable information, you ask? Conversations with fellow impact-makers will reveal the true winning of slow progression.
- You have a great sense of smell
Maybe sense of smell is literal for the sloth, but for you, its about picking up instinct.
Something that happens with practice and observation isn’t something that can be bought with money. The latest courses, the fanciest technology, and the biggest ad budgets will not gain you the same experience as exercising your business prowess.
- You’re good in many environments, but the best in one.
Sloths are actually great swimmers, but they love their trees. As an impact-maker creating art, business, community or anything important, you are good at many things. Your strong qualities can get you into many places.
But you belong in one. Your best role is the one you can’t stop thinking about doing. Creators create, accountants account, managers manage, and impact-makers make impact.
Maybe some things would be easier- and especially quicker – but if you’re the sloth, quick just isn’t your style.
Leverage your strength to excel.
Sloths don’t see very well and are comically slow. Usually he’s not exactly the entrepreneur’s mascot of choice for inspiring characters. But like the sloth, the best brands build over time, through conversation and feedback. They build with human connection in mind,
Many successful impact-makers know “it takes about ten years to be an overnight success.” When ideas grow slow as you’re turning dreams into reality, the best advice is to lean into your strengths, while finding the right tools and teams to double your pace.
What is slowing you in the race? What’s it going to take to double your pace?
You weren’t meant to skate through some other life. You were meant to use your strengths to make your impact.
Maybe you aren’t fast, but the longer you slow-climb, the stronger you get, and the stronger you get, the more muscle you can leverage.
Like putting a sloth with strong arms on a skateboard – when you finally get the teams, tools, and tactics in place you throttle your momentum!
Skate through Making an Impact
The slow start of business and worthy causes gives you a chance to assess your weakness within the environment, ask yourself
- What can your strength contribute to the purpose?
- What can compensate for your weakness?
- Teams
- Tools
- Tactics
- Considering your strengths, what is your role?