Today we ask that you learn to honor the process, and not focus on completion.

You live in a society in which much emphasis is placed upon “finishing things.”  You are all about deadlines, grades, markers of achievement.  You are all about the “bottom line,” quarterly reports, statements of profit and loss.  You are all about the finished work.  You want everything in a rush.  You want it yesterday.  There is no patience.  It is all about instant gratification.

You honor people who get things done in a great hurry.  If you hear that a great work of art was completed in a week, this sounds better to you than a great work of art that took many years to create.  

Never mind that the artists who produce great works of art in a mad rush to completion usually do not have long lifespans, and often abuse their bodies with drugs and stimulants.  Whereas artists who take longer to do things often live longer, for they may be happier and more well-balanced.

This holds true for everyone.

If you wish to be happier and healthier in this life, one of the simplest things you can do is just slow down.

Slow down.

Why is there such a great rush?  Will getting things done faster make them better?  Isn’t it true that things done in a rush are usually of poorer quality than things that are given time?

You humans.  If you had your way, you would make everything faster.  Trees would grow in a week.  Human infants would gestate in one month, not nine.   Always with you it is faster, faster, faster, so that you can get more done!

But really, often, the faster you go, the less is actually accomplished.  There is so much wasted effort in your world.  So much storm and fury signifying nothing.  All these people rushing around and firing off emails and texts and really doing nothing.

Whereas the people who stop to breathe, and meditate — the ones who appear to be doing nothing — these are the ones who are really doing something.

Please learn to enjoy the process.  The day-to-day labors.  The little things.  Yes, it is good to complete things, to reach a state of completion.  At the same time, nothing in this life is ever complete.  So if you don’t learn to enjoy the process, life will always be rather miserable for you.

Slow down.

Enjoy the process.

Give yourself, and other people, space.