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“I need a sign,” I said to my empty car while stuck in traffic.

I had grown frustrated with myself. With a lot of turnover at my job, I was tasked with forming new teams. It was not going as effortlessly as I had hoped. So far there had been hopeful starts, followed by dead stops. I felt stuck. I had no idea what to do next to reach the planned goals.

Despite a deeper knowing that nothing meaningful could be created overnight when it comes to building any type of relationship, I ignored my intuition.

It’s easy to let our logical minds go into overdrive when we don’t feel successful. Without realizing it,  I slipped into an old pattern focusing and worrying solely about the outcome. Unsurprisingly, this fear-based thinking yielded zero creativity and no forward momentum.

That afternoon I returned from a run to see a local police SUV parked in front of my house. A trailer hitched to the back towed a radar sign used to display the speed of drivers.

“Is it okay if it goes here?” The officer asked as I collected mail from the mailbox.

“I’m sorry I don’t know what you’re asking,” I said confused.

“The sign,” he motioned to the trailer.

“Oh yeah, sure!” I agreed.

I had completely forgotten about the neighborhood email thread from earlier in the day. Recently there have been a lot of speeding cars on the road as it’s a mostly flat straightaway. Last weekend, a neighbor’s dog was hit. The neighbor reached out to the police to see if the street would be a candidate for speed bumps. The police explained the first step would be to collect data from the radar sign.

I didn’t give the radar sign a second thought until later in the evening when my next-door neighbor Candice texted.

You have a huge neon sign in your yard! the text read.

A physical sign—in my yard.

I walked over to the window as if seeing the radar sign for the first time. This was the sign I asked for and the message was clear—just slow down.

The following morning while brushing my teeth I opened the latest email in the neighborhood thread.

It read, “Well, we have a sign…it’s a start.”

I laughed. It seemed this magic sign held the same meaning for people whether it meant to physically slow down, or mentally not rush the process.

“The great benefit of slowing down is reclaiming the time and tranquility to make meaningful connections–with people, with culture, with work, with nature, with our own bodies and minds.” ~Carl Honoré

There is no imaginary deadline to be met when it comes to establishing connections with people. The best evolve over time. The stronger the partnerships we build, the more we can accomplish together. So take it slow and make it worthwhile.

~

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