Festina Lente
Make haste slowly through your career—lest the good things pass you by.
Festina lente (Classical Latin: [fɛsˈtiː.naː ˈlɛn.teː]) or speûde bradéōs (σπεῦδε βραδέως, pronounced [spêu̯.de bra.dé.ɔːs]) is a classical adage and oxymoron meaning "make haste slowly" (sometimes rendered in English as "more haste, less speed"). . .
. . .The meaning of the phrase is that activities should be performed with a proper balance of urgency and diligence. If tasks are rushed too quickly then mistakes are made and good long-term results are not achieved. Work is best done in a state of flow in which one is fully engaged by the task and there is no sense of time passing. (source: Wikipedia).
Festina Lente is something I have been giving a lot of thought to lately, as it pertains not only to my work in therapy, but also, in life, love, friendships, and the things that bring me joy.
Much of my profesisonal life has been punctuated by the Festina (make haste) with less Lente.
I’ve had a lot of urgency around…well... everything. Especially since I got sober in summer 2016, but even before then—as far back as I can remember, even to childhood—there has always been a sense of urgency around doing more, getting further, being better, making mroe progress, knowing more, having more responsibility, etc. etc. I have pushed and pushed toward my goals with urgency, which includes my push to get through grad school, to get through licensure, to know more & be a better therapist, to get the certifications and trainings and to know all of the interventions, more more and more…
All while flitting between tasks, interests, areas of focus, and opportunities.
And I’ve wondered why, for so long, it has felt so hard to really feel satisfied and accomplished with everything I’ve done. Rather than taking a moment to celebrate my achievements, I am constantly pointing my gaze to “next.”
I was exploring this recently with my own therapist, and talking about how recently, I was feeling liek Samwise Gamgee leaving the shire: “one more step, and this is the furthest I’ll have ever been from home.”
This realization comes to me as I look at my life and career as of late: I have given more concentrated effort and time to this career than any other, and I am learning wht I feels like to have ongoing therapeutic relationships with clients that last longer than a prescribed 4-6 months.
I am learning what it feels like to plan not just for the next month or the next year in my business, but to look at my career in terms of 1, 5, 10 years down the road.
The words “sustainability” and “longevity” are becoming increasingly popular in my personal career vocabulary, and it feels weird to reach this point where I am finally able to indulge in the “Lente” aspect of “Festina Lente”–that is, being more diligent, finding a flow with my career, and envisioning a long-term goal rather than pushing myself 100% to get to the next mile marker in the race.
Similarly, every day that passes is the longest time I’ve ever remained sober. In the same vein, I have now been sober longer than I ever drank (I’m one of those weirdos who almost never drank while underage, but went full tilt once I hit 21). That is, I drank steadily and often heavily for about 6 years, and have now been sober for 6 years and 3 months.
While the first few years were marked by an almost frenetic scramble toward healing and normalcy, these past few have been marked by a “flow” state in sobriety—the sensation of being sober in my day to day life is so engrained that it is not uncommon for me to catch myself by surprise when I realize how long I’ve been on this particular path.
It’s a difficult thing, finding the balance between urgency and diligence. It’s often easier to go headlong into whatever seems like the “next best thing” without giving as much energy or credence to the idea that a well-paced urgency—marked by flow and intentionality—can give us an even deeper sense of fulfillment in our work and in our lives.
How might this actually look in the world of therapy, though? What would it mean to take a Festina Lente approach to our work?
Taking one training at a time and immersing ourselves in the material completely, without getting wrapped up in the urge to jump from training to training, course to course, in order to achieve a sense of “competence” or “legitimacy” or to have more letters behind our name.
As much as we’re able—and as much as it makes sense—soaking in whatever lessons we learn during our time in grad school and supervision, without getting wrapped up in the “What’s next?” or “when is this over?” aspect of things
Balancing our urgency around applying tools and quick fix-it solutions to help clients feel better immediately, with the long-term advantage of slowing down our sessions, being in the moment with difficult feelings, and giving room to the full expression of our clients’ experiences
Developing sustainable, doable strategies and techniques to market ourselves in private practice that help us build our businesses, while avoiding the panic and internal pressure of, “I need to have a full caseload yesterday!” that leads to frenetic, sporadic, and inconsistent efforts at showing up.
Understanding, internalizing, and coming to a deep sense of belief in the idea that this career is meant to be mindfully paced like a marathon, not intense like a sprint, and that we are best served (as are our clients) in this work by refusing to believe that we need to bum-rush our way to the next goal with little regard to process, practice, a variability in our capacity to change.
I don’t know about you, but this is an ongoing balancing act that takes varying levels of attention, intention, and time. What I do know—and what I’d like you to know—is that this is OK. In fact, it’s more than expected, and even when it looks like everyone is “passing you by,” there is an astonishing amount of truth to the idea that slow and steady wins the race.
-meg
As a reminder!
Applications for the early career mentorship program open soon!
This program is intended to match independently licensed therapists with early career therapists (grad school through first 2 years) to foster a supportive environment for the next generation of care providers.
This program will officially run February 1, 2023 - August 1, 2023. It is free for everyone involved. Applications to become a mentor or mentee will open
on November 1, 2022, and will be open until November 15, 2022. These will be available by
If you want to learn more before applying, I will be hosting two separate meetings for interested individuals on October 30.
The meeting for interested mentors will be at 12pm EST and the meeting for interested mentees will be at 1pm EST.
FAQs can be found on this Google Doc
Register for the meeting for mentors (Oct 30 at 12pm EST)
Register for the meeting for mentees (Oct 30 at 1pm EST)
More Questions? Email mentorship@informercoaching.com or check out the website https://www.informercoaching.com/mentorship-program
This is sooooo good, and helpful - particularly the passage about applying this in session with clients and being with them fully in their expression and exploration of tough spots, not rushing to fix or bandaid. Thank you.