The Italian Motto That Inspires My Writing Philosophy

In the past week, I haven’t checked a lot of boxes:

• I haven’t written as much as I should,
• I haven’t read as many articles as I would have,
• I have “only” worked-out twice, as opposed to the three times a week I aim at,
• I have eaten more junk food than I normally do.

Want to know what I’ve been busy doing instead? (*Hint: I will tell you regardless of your answer*)

Resting.

Slow and steady wins the race

There is an Italian motto that goes like “Chi va piano va sano e va lontano.”

In English, it would be roughly translated with “Slow and steady wins the race.”

However, what I think the English translation lacks of is the emphasis on the health aspect. That is, the literal translation of the Italian motto would be something like “Those who go slow, go healthy and far.”

After all, what is rest if not a way of taking care of your health?

The Initial Panicky Mode

During my week, I felt a bit panicky on several occasions for going AWOL from my own responsibilities.

I had articles to write, networking with other writers to be made, and workouts to be completed (on top of my day job which I couldn’t go AWOL from).

Specifically, when detecting that writing wasn’t what I was feeling drawn to and that I wanted to chill instead, my mind tried to check-in on me every day:

“You already rested yesterday. How about writing today?” — It asked me on my second day of going AWOL.

Since I didn’t listen to it, it came back the following day:

“You already rested yesterday and the day before. How about writing today?”

And so on for the first 2–3 days.

After a couple of reminders, my mind fell silent, and I realized I was opting for a prolonged break rather than just a one-day pause.

The Only Thing Left To Do Is… Surrendering

Once I trusted my gut telling me I needed some mindless relaxing time and stopped opposing resistance, everything started flowing better.

I felt present.

In fact, I felt I was doing exactly what I was supposed to do, like visiting a cute café here in Seoul, eating pastries multiple times over the week, going shopping, and hanging out with friends.

The Paradox Of Going Further If You Go Slower… Or Stop Completely

Come Sunday, I felt rested and excited for a new week.

Not only that — surprisingly, despite my writing break, my mind started gifting me with a lot of titles and ideas for new articles to write!

I felt as if I had just got back from a brainstorming session. (*Second hint: creators need resting time to come up with new ideas!*)

This made me even more convinced that taking breaks (or stopping altogether for whatever time our body and mind ask for) is the only way to keep this Medium/Content Creation-thing sustainable overtime.

When was the last time you allowed yourself to rest fully?

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