When slow and steady
The world is full of noise, but the quiet pockets are where the hard work happens, writes Karen Nimmo.
We are constantly hearing stories of those who achieve greatly. Like the hip-hop dancer who is smashing it on Tiktok, the 16-year-old who started a worldwide charity, or the first-time novelist who scored a six-figure advance. Occasionally, those stories are inspiring. But often they are a little depressing, especially if you have been toiling at your craft for years with not much to show for it.
But here’s the thing. Fame and fortune doesn’t guarantee happiness. Nor does relentless selfpromotion, millions of social media followers or having a tweet go viral. Those achievements won’t win you genuine friends or settle arguments with your partner. They won’t insulate you from stress or burnout. They won’t nurture your physical and emotional health. They won’t ensure you are loved.
They might even make everything worse. Multiple celebrity stories offer proof of that.
The power of quiet achievement
Quiet achievement is not about locking yourself in a dark room and working all the hours you are given. It is not about avoiding all human contact and just doing your thing relentlessly. It is about knowing what you like to do and steadily, methodically, trying to get better at it. And it’s about staying true to your own version of success. There is no blueprint for achievement. But those who pursue success quietly tend to share some key habits. These are the best of them.
Aggressive self-promotion is not for them. They don’t care if you have no idea what they do, as long as they get to do it. They will show you, rather than tell you. They just do their best work and let that do the talking.
They relish being average because they know that being average gives you space to grow, room to improve, and the freedom to do it out of the spotlight. They know that being seen as average lowers the bar; it gives them the best excuse to ask dumb questions and mess up. And they know that in the space where average meets persistence, great things are born.
They take their time – with their work, their creative projects, their relationships and their weekends. When they are with people who matter to them, they see the hustle for what it is – superficial and exhausting. They don’t beat themselves up for taking a detour or two. They know that life is longer than most people think. So they don’t rush, they pace themselves.
They don’t see things as they are, or as everyone else sees them. Instead, they step to one side and look from a fresh angle and perspective. It means they can steal bits and pieces from all sorts of odd places to add to their quietly growing knowledge. And that puts them ahead of the game.
Quiet achievers know the intrinsic value of acknowledging their wins. They break out the bubbles or balloons when appropriate but they are not shouting it through megaphones. They don’t live and die by the growth of their network. They enjoy their achievements, then go back to work.
Everyone should spend some time on Easy Street. That is where all the fun stuff is. The parties. The toys. The temptations. The scrolling. The timewasters. But quiet achievers keep tabs on the time they spend on Easy Street. They run the GPS on themselves. They never get lost down there because they know the price is too high. They know it can become really hard to get back.
Quiet achievers are consistent. They know it takes time to get really good at anything. They also know that most people don’t develop their talent fully because they want the fastest route and if they don’t see immediate progress they give up. They shy away from pain, rejection and failure, instead of trying to grow from it.
Quiet achievers take calculated risks. They get their thrills from subtle places. They stick with slow and steady wins the race. So when the hares bolt and tire, they plod forward. Because they know that life is not a race. It is a road trip. And taking the trip slowly means you might enjoy it.
Karen Nimmo is a Wellington-based clinical psychologist