She walked into our fifth session like a jiu jitsu athlete who’d just figured out a submission nobody sees coming. Upbeat. Lively. “What are we doing next, Marc!?”
Weeks before, she’d been on the mats with her business. She was stalled, not seeing progress. The main sticking point was an employee who wasn’t fully engaged.
The question we asked was how to get them to engage, and it was the wrong question. That’s a linear question.
Then somewhere around week five, it clicked. In her leadership role she had to ask, where does this person want to grow?
When she had that conversation, the options broke out of a linear mold. The mental load of “what do I do about…” lifted. She launched two more organizations and began fundraising with renewed vigor.
Why did it take 5 weeks? In The Good Place, Ted Danson’s character describes time as non-linear and it looks like a “Jeremy Bearimy.”
Growth works the same way. It moves at its own pace, in its own direction. Sometimes you want to make a change and the “aha” moment is right there, sometimes it shows up five weeks later.
You can’t rush it.
And giving it time is what makes it show up faster.