Sometimes it is time to keep going, sometimes it is time to stop. This is your Forrest Gump moment.
I recall a moment about ten years ago. At that time, and for several years, I had been doing indoor cycling classes three days per week. Each time I pushed myself hard, close to my limits, as I had always done in training for whatever sport I had trained for or taken part in for at least the past two decades (at that point).
This one moment though, I had a sudden realisation, that, for that class, I was going to stop. I did. I stopped, calmly, then got off the bike and went to walk around the building to cool off. A few minutes later, as the class finished, the instructor came to me, concerned, asked if I was ok. They had never seen me finish early in a class before. I was absolutely ok, it was simply time to stop. It was a “Forrest Gump moment”.
Last week I saw this Instagram post from my former colleague and amazing human being, Dani Saveker. After 5 years, 5 months and 22 days of daily acts of kindness, she has decided to stop. She will certainly continue to be kind, she simply will turn her formal attention, as she notes, to other areas.
For me, I have now been posting here every day for three years, eight months and a few days. A few weeks prior to seeing Dani’s insta post, I too had one of those Forrest Gump moments. I stopped, paused, then thought to myself, instead of stopping: “yes, I’ll keep going”. Sometimes it is time to keep going, sometimes it is time to stop. I decided to keep going.
My core theme in my writing is #OpenLeadership, and that, as with all leadership, starts with self-leadership, with knowing ourselves.
Embrace your Forrest Gump moments when they come, when you stop, when you trust your instinct. Sometimes you stop, sometimes you keep going, sometimes you may even take a different path.