Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around and catch you.
VerifiedThis I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women, Volume II, edited by Jay Allison, Henry Holt, 2008
Why This Matters
Read full quote →The paradox here isn't simply that rushing backfires—it's that our pursuits often require us to become still enough to recognize them when they arrive. A person frantically job-hunting, sending applications everywhere, may miss the perfect opportunity that comes through a conversation at a coffee shop because she's too scattered to notice. What De Paola captures is that desperation creates a kind of blindness, while patience creates the clarity to receive what we've been working toward all along. The insight inverts our usual relationship with ambition: sometimes the work isn't in the chasing, but in making ourselves worthy hosts for what's already moving toward us.