Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast

Read time: 3.5 minutes

I’ve been thinking a lot about resistance lately.

Not the dramatic kind. Not the big, thunderous resistance where we scream “NO!” at the world.

I’m talking about the quiet kind.

The low-humming, often-unnoticed kind. The little voice in your head that says…

• “This probably won’t work.”

• “I should be further along by now.”

• “Maybe I’m just not cut out for this.”

It’s sneaky. Subtle. It shows up in the gaps—in between decisions, in the pause before action, in those 11 pm scroll-holes where we compare ourselves to everyone else’s reels.

So today, if you’re open to it, I want to invite you into a little practice.

Right now, take a breath.

Let your body land.

Then, ask yourself:

Maybe it’s about your business. Maybe it’s about Love. Maybe it’s about that one client, or your family, or how you’re showing up in your leadership.

Just name it.

Then, write it down.

Now here’s what I’ve learned:

That thought? It’s not the problem.

The resistance to the thought is.

See, resisting the thought is like falling into a river and thinking the only way to survive is to grab hold of a rock and hold on for dear Life.

You think you’re saving yourself—but all you’re doing is exhausting yourself.

You’re not flowing with the river. You’re fighting it.

And that’s what we do with these thoughts.

We resist them. Argue with them. Try to logic them away. Try to affirm them into oblivion.

But what if the only way out… was to be with the thought?

What if the real move wasn’t to do more, push harder, or “fix” the thought—but to simply accept it?

Not as truth. But as presence.

To say, “Oh. There you are.”

And keep going anyway.

Before you ask—no, accepting the thought doesn’t mean you’re giving up or getting stuck.

Acceptance isn’t complacency.

It’s clarity.

When you stop wrestling with the thought, you create space to move more freely—not less.

This is what people often misunderstand when I talk about Being.

They think I mean—do nothing. Sit on a cushion. Stare at a wall. Opt out of action.

But being isn’t inaction. Being is the state that informs the action.

Being is what lets you move from clarity, not fear.

Being with your resistant thought doesn’t mean you stop. It means you stop fighting. It means you start listening. It means you let it come along for the ride—but it doesn’t get to drive.

You’re still in motion.

You’re still taking the call, sending the email, hosting the group, building the thing. But now you’re doing it from presence. 

Not from panic. Not from performance. Not from pleasing.

That’s the difference.

And this really clicked for me when I started thinking about babies.

Yes—babies!!!

Babies fall. They cry. They laugh. They wobble. They try again.

They don’t sit there analyzing what went wrong or telling themselves they’re behind on their developmental roadmap.

They just keep being.

Then, they keep doing. They keep movin'.

The only real difference between you and that baby is… more birthdays.

More time means more memory.

• More “evidence” of failure.

• More reasons to be cautious.

• More filters on what’s possible.

And most of that resistance?

It’s not trying to sabotage you. It's trying to protect you.

From failure. From rejection. From disappointment.

But the irony is—resistance often ends up keeping you from the very thing you’re working so hard to build...

So we forget.

We forget that we once had access to a part of us that wasn’t afraid to fall.

And that part of you, my friends? It’s not gone!!!

It’s just been buried under a few years of “realism” and “strategy.”

And honestly, that’s what I see most in the coaching world, the business world, the growth world…

Everyone’s obsessed with adding.

• Add this tool.

• Add this book.

• Add this tactic.

• Add this funnel.

• Add this affirmation.

• Add this productivity system.

But what if the move wasn’t to add?

What if the move was to subtract?

What if being wasn’t about finding the perfect next step—but removing what’s in the way?

Not knowing what to do doesn’t always mean you need more information. Sometimes it means you need less noise.

That’s the magic of being.

It’s not always stillness. But it is always clarity.

And sometimes the best way to keep movin' is to slow down.

To sit down. To be with the thought.

To stop gripping the branch in the river and finally let go.

So today, if resistance is in the room with you—let it be.

Let it be there without trying to fix it, erase it, or talk over it.

See if you can walk alongside it. Speak through it. Move anyway.

Because you’re not behind.

You’re not broken.

You’re just remembering.

Happy Saturday!

Much Love,

Julian

PS. If you try this today—this practice of naming your resistance and being with it—I’d love to hear what shifts for you. Reply back and let me know. I always read what you send.