In Praise of Slow Progress

Let’s be honest: in a world of “overnight success” posts and highlight reels, slow progress can feel like failure in disguise. You scroll through social media and it seems like everyone else is launching, finishing, growing, creating at lightning speed, while you’re just… still here. Still working on the same thing you started months ago. Still slogging through.

It can be hard not to compare ourselves to others, feel like we’re lagging behind, and like we should be doing more, faster, sooner.

But let’s think about it:

1. Slow progress is still progress. I can get so focused on all the progress I wish I was making, that I forget to acknowledge all the progress I am making. Life feels much calmer and more manageable when I remember to do that.
2. Your timeline is valid. We often think other people notice and care more about our progress than they actually do. Really, the only thing that matters is putting one foot in front of the other, at our own pace and to our own abilities.
   
3. You’re not behind. You are living your life, not the life of that person doing those things over there. No one is in front or behind of anyone else, we’re all just here, living our own lives with their own individual trajectories.

I’m currently in the final stages of my master’s degree in psychology. It’s taken me three years to get here. Some of the people I started with wrapped up their studies 18 months ago. And yes, there have been moments where I’ve questioned everything: the timing, my commitment, whether it’s worth it, whether I should just quit and free up some mental bandwidth.

But I chose this course because it was flexible. I knew I’d need the space and time to take it slow (really slow, apparently 😅). And you know what? I’ve kept going. Sometimes steaming ahead. Sometimes pausing. Sometimes flowing. Sometimes definitely not. But always inching forward. And that feels meaningful.

Why slow progress is secretly a superpower

We’re so good at noticing what we haven’t done, we often miss the stuff we have:

You only knitted one row instead of a whole sleeve? That’s one row closer to your next finished project (and a cozy jumper). You wrote 50 words instead of 1,000? That’s 50 more than zero (you can’t edit zero, but you can edit 50!). You started a 100-day art project and made it to day 12? That’s 12 more creations than you had before.

We might not get the dopamine hit of something snazzy to show for our efforts, but slow progress builds something even better:

• Patience: No small feat in a fast-paced world

• Resilience: You kept going even when it got boring or hard

• Self-trust: You showed up. Again and again

This kind of progress asks you to recommit, manage self-doubt, and being able to sit with discomfort. It’s quiet, gritty, and unglamorous, but incredibly valuable.

If you feel like you’re moving slowly right now

Let’s celebrate that (with a snail emoji: 🐌)! And if it feels hard, here are a few things you can do to shift how you’re thinking about your progress:

1. Zoom out. Look at how far you’ve come, not just how far you have to go.

2. Make a “have done” list. This is one of my favourite exercises when I feel like I’m not making enough progress. I wrote more about it here, but the gist is keep track of what is happening, not just what you still need to do.

3. Shift the stories you’re telling yourself. Instead of “I’m behind,” try “I’m building something with care,” “I’m learning a lot along the way,” “I’m focusing on sustainability over speed,” or “I’m thinking of this as a marathon, not a sprint.”

Over to you:

• What strengths does your slow progress highlight?

• What are you learning through this process?

• How would it feel to trust your timing more?

Further reading: How to Deal with Perfectionism (and Keep Creating Anyway) & Planting and Harvesting in Your Creative Practice

Share on Pinterest:

Photo by Pascal van de Vendel on Unsplash