Life in the Slow Lane: Slowing Down Leads to Success

074. Have you ever felt like you're struggling to find your time to shine in life?

Join me as I share my personal journey of taking the slow road in driving and how it beautifully aligns with our quest for finding our purpose in life. So many of the ways I'm shining right now in my life have taken years and years for the right season to develop.

In this episode, we discuss the importance of allowing ourselves the time to grow and mature, just like a potter patiently drying their clay vessels, or a tree putting down strong roots before sprouting and reaching for the sky.

Embracing the fact that our journey to finding our place of shine takes time is crucial to our growth and success. Trusting that we are on the right path and appreciating the journey can lead to powerful personal development and a stronger sense of purpose. So, let's slow down, reflect, and take the time to grow into our true potential together. Your place of shine is worth the wait, and I'm here to support you every step of the way.

00:00:00 Recap on Finding Your Shine 00:01:32 The Power of Time 00:03:53 The slow road to shine 00:05:26 Being a Granny Driver (yes me) 00:07:09 Taking detours to enjoy the view 00:08:16 The Importance of Taking Your Time 00:08:16 Drying the clay slowly 00:10:30 The process of maturing 00:12:13 Trust that you’re meant to grow 00:13:54 We're in it for the long game 00:15:35 Where to Find Me 00:15:54 Supporting the Podcast

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Transcript

Marijanel: 0:00

Hey and welcome back Marijanel Show, another episode where we're unlocking the full potential of you. Have you been lacking confidence, doubting yourself, wondering where on earth is your place to shine? Well, we're in the Place of Shine series right now, talking about how to find confidence to shine where you're really meant to shine in life. Welcome to the so glad you're here. Let's get started with today's episode. All of us are on this quest to find our place to shine. No one's exempt from it, and there's a really, really important point that I want to bring across in today's podcast. It's about time. It takes time to find the place of shine and you're Marijanel , i don't want to listen to this. I want a quick fix. Give me a three week program, give me a 30 day blitz, give me a two day challenge to find my place to shine. Yes, i can give you journal prompts and I can give you a power pack podcast full of all kinds of you know this is how you shine tips. But the reality is, and what I have learned from my own life of coming into a place of calling and destiny, is that it's a long process. It's not a microwave. It's not a microwave fix. It is a long, dedicated process. We're talking years and that is not a good sales pitch at all. It's not a good sales pitch for a mentor to come along and say I would like to mentor you and it's going to take years. I can tell you this that within a short amount of time I can boost your confidence and I have been doing that in a series through the podcast. I'm going to be offering that in some up and coming courses in my mentorship program that are like confidence jump starts, confidence boosts, but the true you finding your true place of shine, then beginning to shine and remaining in shine is a long process that takes time, and I want to talk to you about the power of time. This is not going to be about productivity and how to use your time, how to systemize, although you know I love all that stuff. I love all that stuff and it's a huge part of my professional work strategizing time and time management. But today I'm coming to you with an approach on time that is a little bit different and about you settling in to the fact that the best growth in your life and the best, the best of what's going to come is going to take time, but it's going to be you aligning. You need to align to that place of shine. You need to see that place of shine, align to it and then let time take you there and if it takes you there slowly, we have to be okay with it.

Marijanel: 3:06

I could right now be speaking to the impatient people that are a lot like me, where I see where I want to go and I want to be there in an hour. I want everything in my business and all my plans to you know, get with it. I want to be there as fast as I can, and I know that. I know that's not how it works, especially when you're a person of faith who's also trusting God to have a plan and being open to him changing it sometimes, which has happened to me time and time again. There are so many times that I can look back through my journals where I see that I thought I was going a certain direction and I thought I knew what would unfold, and then something changes my plans and it's actually for the better, and it doesn't necessarily change my place of shine, which would relate to my calling and purpose and what I'm good at but it it does in fact change the plans in which I thought I would shine, or it does in fact change maybe the route that my shine path takes and the patience and the trust that it takes to enjoy the slow road.

Marijanel: 4:31

It's hard to enjoy the slow road in a microwave world. I need to confess something about myself. I don't think I've shared this on the show yet. I'm a fairly slow driver. I drive a vehicle that doesn't look like it should be slow And that's actually quite enjoyable for me because I think maybe I'm judged less on the road because my vehicle looks fast and yet I drive it slow and they just think, oh, there's a good reason that that souped up, lifted Jeep is going slow. It's a trick. But I'm like, essentially, a granny driver and I take the slow road around my town.

Marijanel: 5:13

We have a highway, a really fast, busy highway, the one in which a dear friend of mine was tragically killed many years ago, and I think I have some trauma related to that highway which could be part of why I avoid it. But aside from the trauma, i find I generally tend to like the scenic route. So we have this super fast highway through our town that I do like to avoid. But then all around we have these side roads that bypass lakes and mountains And if you time it right, the sun is glowing over the water and you know, it's just these incredible British Columbia views.

Marijanel: 5:54

I live in the Shuswap Valley of BC and it's just breathtaking And I've taught myself all these little side roads to get where I want to go. We have a far town, we have a downtown and we have an uptown. I live uptown and when I have to go to the far end of town I will take the lake view and then cut this block and cut this corner. Down that one way street I'll get to see the biggest treble cliff sculpture in the world. Woohoo, it's super awesome. Actually, a friend of mine helped build it.

Marijanel: 6:26

And I do all these side streets in order to get where I want to go because, first, i don't mind meandering It's something I've taught myself to do And second, i find I still get where I need to go in mostly the same amount of time, without the stress and previous trauma of the highway. So I am saying this, sharing with you my granny habits of driving slow and taking the side roads, because I wanted to say that that is like sometimes a snapshot for me of even what I'm doing in my life and business. It's like I know exactly where I want to go but I've allowed myself to take some side roads and I've allowed the detours to enjoy the view, to enjoy the sunset. If you think about it in terms of like, let's say we're hiking up this mountain. I've likened our destiny to a mountain in previous podcasts where I say here is our mountain of destiny and sometimes we're ill-equipped, we have the wrong hiking shoes, which would be like our confidence. We're just lacking the confidence to make the hike. We're ill-equipped. And let's say now we're standing at this mountain and there's like one main path and then there's these other little meandering paths that show us wildflowers and extra views and you know beautiful sights and scenes and maybe waterfalls that we wouldn't experience if we went straight up the mountain to our destiny. And yes, one takes longer and one and it might feel like detours, but there's something beautiful to be found in the meander. There's something beautiful to be found in taking our time and allowing time to mature us.

Marijanel: 8:16

I've talked also about the time in my life the decade that I was a professional potter where I would make the clay vessel and purposely wrap it in plastic and put it on the shelf. By wrapping the clay vessel in in plastic and allowing it to dry slowly, you can often save it from cracking in the kiln. If something dries quickly, it can crack just as it's drying, but then it can also have these little weaknesses that could crack in the kiln. If I dried it slowly and I just methodically checked it and sprayed it with a little mist here and there and really babysat it while it dried, it took a lot longer to produce the pottery, but I would come out with better quality, a more mature, strong piece of pottery, and so I used to feel often when I would set that piece on the shelf to dry, that even in my own life it was a picture of how many times I have been quote unquote shelved. I have felt shelved so many times as if you know my potter, my master potter, was making something beautiful and just said okay, now here you go, sit on the shelf and dry slowly, because it will be better that way. And yes, it will be better that way, but it doesn't feel that great to the clay. You kind of look around the shelf being like well, why does that vessel get used, and why is that one getting in the kiln already and I'm just sitting here doing nothing? and when will my time and place to shine be? That's what all those, those clay pots, are asking from the drying shelf.

Marijanel: 10:01

I have felt shelved so many times in my life. There were times I thought I was ready and I was like, yes, this is this is the moment I'm going to publish this, you know, start a podcast. Or this is the moment I'm going to have my online course. Or this is the moment and I'm speaking now in terms of entrepreneurial things, because it's very relevant in my personal life, but to you it could sound different Yes, this is the moment I'm going to step out and fill in the blank.

Marijanel: 10:30

And yet then it doesn't happen for one reason or another, whether it's a season or a circumstance, but we get befuddled, we get confused and we think that we have no shine or that we have no purpose, because the time of maturing, the time of it becoming, has taken so long that we feel like it's not going to happen. Time going slowly and maturing us isn't there. It isn't part of the process to to diminish our purpose. It's part of the process to grow us stronger for the purpose, and I've used quite a few word pictures today. I've used the word picture of taking my time driving through town, climbing the mountain, meandering through on different trails and even drying slowly on the shelf as a piece of clay. But there's one more word picture I want to bring forward is thinking of yourself as a tree that's growing. And you could be a tree that shoots up really fast to your place of shine and have no root system to support the height of your growth. Or you can be a tree that allows the time for your root system to grow deep and strong. Maybe the tree on top just looks like a seedling for a while, because those roots are securing themselves in the, the good foundation, and then you begin to grow.

Marijanel: 12:02

I feel like in my own life that's the story. It's been a story of slowly drying on the potter shelf. It's been a story of slowly growing roots And actually there are some things in my life that I thought were even happening now. I thought, ok, this and this and this are happening now And as of the last couple of weeks, i realized, no, i'm actually still waiting. I'm actually still meant to grow and mature. This is taking forever. Will it ever happen in my lifetime? Will the things that I know, the dreams that I've had, the calling that's in there, ever come out? The only answer I can give you is trust. We can only trust, i can only trust that I'm meant to do what I'm meant to do here, and part of what I'm meant to do right now is wait and grow those deep, secure roots And trust.

Marijanel: 13:05

And so today, as I speak to you about your place of shine coming into your calling, i wanted to be very specific to point out that place of shine takes time And no matter what my up and coming mentorship programs are going to offer, i know that. I know I cannot advertise and I cannot put it out there that I have any quick fixes for you. Yes, i can boost your convincing. Yes, i can give you these pep talks that hopefully you turn off the podcast and you feel amazing after. I want to bring that kind of positivity into your life. But I also know that I have to prepare in my mentorship program that we're going to be buckling our seatbelts together for a longer drive. We're going to be putting on our proverbial hiking shoes for a longer hike. We're going to be getting wrapped up in that plastic like clay on the shelf to dry together for a long time, because we're in it for the long game, we're in it for the haul.

Marijanel: 14:19

And though that root system is going to go deep and go strong, and when your time to shine manifest, when it is actually the time that the growth and the fruit from the little tree that you are begins to sprout and grow, it's going to be wow because you've taken your time. So do not fear that time isn't on your side. Do not fear that there isn't something good happening in your life when it feels like, oh good things are happening. For everyone else but me, i want to say I believe this is a natural part of the process in finding your place to shine. It takes time. You're not alone in taking your time. You're not alone in growing your root system. When it doesn't look like anything's happening, there is something good happening. I want to leave you with that expression of hope that there's something good happening and that you can be rest assured that you're not alone and you won't be left in the dust. Your place of shine will come. It takes time. Thank you for being here on the for joining me in my long journey as I found my place to shine in that, as I am cultivating a place and space for you to find your place of shine as well.

Marijanel: 15:51

You can find me on my ma rijanel. com, .

Marijanel: 15:54

All of my links are in the description box below. On YouTube, you know what to do hit the subscribe bell, the thumbs up. It helps the videos be found and spread the word on audio apps Apple, google and Spotify. I'd love it if you leave stars and a review and it just helps the podcast be heard and show appreciation for podcasts that you love. I also have a way that you can support the show. It's a buy me a coffee link right there in the show notes where you can give a donation. You don't even need an account. You can just hop on that link and give a donation, which is called buying me a coffee, and I don't literally drink the coffee when you give a donation, but I do do a happy dance and I usually reinvest in more equipment and the editing fees to get this podcast made. So thank you for supporting the show that way. Until next time on the , i hope that you keep on in the full potential of you and that you find your place to shine.