Pace Was Never the Problem

By Tricia Scott.

Today, I did a breathwork session before I had my coffee.

Before. My. Coffee. I know, who even am I? Lol.

I need you to understand the scale of this. Coffee is not a beverage in my house, it’s actual infrastructure — the first decision of the day, every day, for about two decades.

This morning, I sat down and breathed deliberately for ten minutes first.

And I felt different. I wrote this letter differently. Which is either the breathwork or the new mushroom coffee I’m trialling, and I don’t much care which.

Here’s how I got here. Last weekend, I’d taken The Rest Test to Brinkburn in Northumberland — a Summer Wellness Day with the brilliant Create Retreats.

If you’ve never been, Brinkburn is one of those places that does half the work before anyone even speaks. Old stone buildings tucked into a wooded valley, an open fire in the Pilates studio (perfection), a warm hug when you arrive and a choice of fresh juice and plant-based food that I was still thinking about days later.

Topped off with a guided woodland walk and, apart from the lovely Elaine (founder of Exaltis and my retreat buddy for the day), a room full of people I had never met who were, without exception, brilliant.

Gillian and Andreas, the founders of Create Retreats, led the day and ran both the Pilates and the breathwork. As I worked (and wobbled) my way through, I realised there is a very particular skill in holding a room of strangers so nobody feels like they’re performing. They have it.

At this point it’s worth noting that I had not taken a Pilates class in a hundred years (approximately) and anxiety breathing (or air hunger) has been one of the hardest perimenopause symptoms to hit me like a freight train in the last 18 months — so I went in expecting to wobble (I did), giggle (I did) and have a panic attack when trying some of the breathwork techniques (I did not).

Instead, I talked to Gillian and Andreas before the session and they were nothing short of wonderful. I felt at ease. They made it fun and safe, and while I can’t say Pilates is easy — it was perfectly manageable for every attendee no matter their level of fitness (or lack of in my case). And my breath, much improved (this one surprised me the most).

Now. Five days before that, I was doing something entirely different. I delivered a keynote at the North Tyneside Business Forum — how The Female CEO actually started, and why community is the most underrated business asset there is.

Fantastic room of business professionals. Adrenaline. Full throttle. I loved every second of it.

Wednesday: fast. Sunday: on the floor, breathing. And somewhere in between, the question: ‘Shouldn’t we be able to have both?’

Then, on the mat, came the answer.

You can. Just not in the same gear. And this is the bit where you might reasonably expect me to write you a letter about slowing your business down. But I’m not going to.

Because most of the time, business needs pace. Launch dates exist. Deadlines don’t move because you’ve had a day off or a doctor’s appointment. Momentum is real, and the good kind is one of the best feelings going.

You also know I’m not about to write you a letter dedicated to the hustle either. I simply don’t buy the go big or go home culture, but I’m also only human and I sometimes fall into it anyway because it’s the default.

I run a business with several things moving at once: the magazine, the community, the podcast, the content. All live. All with their own deadlines. And when that much is in motion, full tilt stops being a choice and becomes the setting you’re left in.

Default.

I see it all the time. We mistake motion for progress. We tell ourselves we’ll ease off after this one thing, and then we find another one thing. And we only make a change when something actually breaks.

Somewhere between the woodland and the meditation, it occurred to me that I don’t have a speed problem. I have a gear problem.

One gear. Almost permanently engaged. Foot down whether the road needs it or not. And a car with one gear isn’t fast, it’s broken.

The point of a gearbox was never to make you go slower. It’s to give you the right amount of power for the bit of road you’re actually on.

Wednesday needed fifth. Standing in front of that room telling that story took everything, and I’d do it again without hesitating.

Sunday needed first. Not as a reward for a busy week. Not because I’d earned it. Because that’s what the day required.

Both of those were the business. Not the business and then the recovery from it.

Same week, different jobs.

The difference this week wasn’t that I did less — I did plenty. It’s that I chose the gear, instead of finding out afterwards which one I’d been stuck in (usually when my body or my business is screaming at me for change).

Here’s what I did, and what I’d love you to try.

Look at your week ahead and go through it asking one question: what does this actually need?

Some of it will need pace. The launch. The deadline. The conversation you’ve been circling for a fortnight. Those want your foot down — give it to them.

Some of it needs something slower. The thinking. The decision you can’t rush. The walk you keep not taking. The friend you keep meaning to ring.

And some of it (this is the uncomfortable one) is running fast for no reason at all, except that nobody has touched the gearstick in a while.

You don’t have to redesign your life. You can start with one decision. And if you can, I highly recommend booking a day with the lovely Gillian and Andreas — they alone are worth the journey, and they run retreats in Crete too (sign me up). And, as I know they’ll both be reading it on their Scottish holiday, thank you both; you gave me a fabulous day, and some truly surprising answers.

Pick one thing this week and change the gear on it deliberately.

Mine was breathwork before coffee. Ten minutes. Barely a decision — and I still haven’t given it back. What will yours be?

I believe in you (always).

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 Tricia Scott is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Female CEO — a global platform, magazine, and community dedicated to helping women build confident, aligned, powerful businesses.

A startup mentor and multi-company director, she’s spent the past decade helping women move from overwhelmed and isolated to empowered and intentional.

Most days, she’s juggling her MacBook, her next big idea, and a very necessary caffeine supply. Connect with her at thefemaleceo.com.