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Hi Reader,

Peggy doesn't like uphills. And uphills don't like Peggy 😅

(And no, I can't just find a flat trail. Nanaimo is hilly.)

Let me back up.

As you might know, I'm back to jogging after my ankle recovery. The goal? 5K under 33:33 (yes, I like a very specific number 🤓).

For now, I'm walking and jogging. And it's going pretty well… Until I hit an uphill. Then… I struggle.

Same story with cycling.

There's no "beam me up, Scotty" option here (Google this if you have absolutely NO clue what I'm talking about 😆). I can't skip the effort.

So what do I do? I take smaller steps, I drop to the lowest gear and I go slower.

Not because I want to. Because I'm forced to.

And once I catch my breath, I keep going. It makes it all easier!

Now here's where it got interesting for me. I started noticing a very different pattern showing up in other places.

In my business.
In life transitions.
In leadership.

When things get harder, what do I do? I gear up, I push through.
I pull more effort from somewhere I didn't know I had.

But almost never do I stop, pause, and take smaller steps on purpose.

And I started wondering…

What if I did?

What if, when the hill shows up, I let myself slow down instead of speed up?
What if I took a breath instead of powering through?
What if I looked at it from a different perspective, instead of just barreling toward the top?

Would I get there faster? Maybe.
Would I get there in better shape? Almost definitely.

Sometimes the answer isn't muscling through.

Sometimes it's about smaller steps. Lower gears. A slower pace.

And a whole lot more breathing 🌿

Because sometimes the biggest step forward is actually the smallest one.

Chat next week,
Peggy 🌿

P.S. When things get hard for you, what's your default? Do you gear up… or do you take smaller steps?

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