The Summer Slowdown

A Practical Summer Challenge to Inspire You to Slow Down & Revitalize Your Life

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Getting Back to Life’s Roots

In the last few posts, I’ve mentioned The Summer Slowdown resource.

At its core, The Summer Slowdown is the contrarian's approach to spiritual detoxing, renewal, and returning to the roots of life. It’s built on three core principles.

Let me explain the heart behind The Summer Slowdown.

My wife tells me I'm a contrarian at heart. This got me into trouble in my younger years, but now I rely on it to keep me from being swept along in the cultural flow.

We need routine perspective checks to keep our eyes clear and hearts full.

So, we must step back and look at life from a new perspective. Refreshing our perspective often requires change—change in view, change in action, change in thought, change of heart.

What if we took the summer and changed our view? What if we changed our hearts? What if we stepped back, slowed down, and embraced change?

To Slowdown, We Must Embrace Rhythms of Change.

Why change? Because the world wants you to be docile.

How often have you talked to a friend, co-worker, or loved one who said, "Wow, now that I'm back from vacation, I need another one to rest."

Even while vacationing, we can let the world dictate our pace of life. But slowing down doesn't mean doing nothing. It’s about creating healthy changes in your summer routine. It's about removing and replacing the same ole thing with a life-giving activity. It's about changing your perspective on what it means to be still, pursue silence, declutter your life, and rejuvenate your creativity as a human being.

This is why I developed The Summer Slowdown Challenge. It's about trying new things, gaining new perspectives, and challenging yourself to see the world with fresh eyes.

“The Summer Slowdown has encouraged me to take a breath this summer and enjoy life at a calmer pace. The magazine is full of ideas to savor life. To settle down and breathe. It is a life-giving resource for today’s hurried mentality.”

— Camie Schadie, Reader & Summer Slowdown Participant

Don't Just Consume All Summer. Focus & Do!

Summer calls to you, asking you to participate in the deeper things.

The ideas in The Summer Slowdown Challenge are meant to get you making, moving, refreshing, and re-establishing your imaginative flow as a human being.

The outcome of The Summer Slowdown Challenge focuses on building creativity and wonder into your summer.

The temptation is to let each season pass us by without dialing into the spirit of the season. Think about summer: longer days, deep nights, it's a time of growth and establishment, it's a time of storms, crickets, and owl songs. The stars change. The sun's path changes.

But it's also a time of waiting, of exercising patience. It's a time to focus on the relationships closest to you, to re-establish friendships, and to try new things. It's a time to be creative and dream.

Creativity Thrives in the Balance of Order & Chaos.

Let's establish an order & chaos rhythm, shall we?

Introducing change into your summer routine might feel a bit chaotic. But experts tell us that creativity thrives in a tight-wire act of order and chaos. We must challenge ourselves to see things new again, for the first time. We need the chaos of change to give us the epiphany of imaginative breakthroughs.

"But Tim," you say. "I'm not particularly creative or imaginative. So why do I need this slowdown concept of yours?"

"Ah, yes," I reply. "Well, sorry to disappoint you, but you are creative. God endowed every person with a creative mind fueled by imagination. You and I use our imaginations for useful and fun activities. But our imaginations suffer when we let the world dull our sense of pace and sight.

Ignore the Calls to Be More Productive.

The world ate half your brain, and you didn't even feel it.

We're fed a lie that says production is king. Wake up at 4 a.m.! Be a hyper-producer. Work a four-hour work week. This approach to life focuses only on the left side of your brain.

Experts tell us this is a problem.

We're designed to have our left brain interpret data while our right brain makes sense of it. And our imagination is the key cog of sense-making!

Instead of productivity, I suggest pursuing wisdom, taking time to deliberate, think, and use our creativity to see the world freshly.

Productivity culture hurts creativity. It’s a by-product of a culture bent on bottom-line thinking (utilitarianism) and operational efficiency. But there are some things an ROI cannot measure.

Remember what nature teaches. The produce from the apple tree does not flourish all year. The harvest occurs in its time. God makes everything beautiful “in its time.” This is a call to live content in the season God has us.

And that season is not always harvest time. Winters can last an eternity, it seems.

The wise farmer—a craftsman of the earth—understands that wisdom draws out the times and puts in the creative work for each season. Wisdom provides a beautiful slowing along the creative path.

We can live, not rushed. We can take the “tempests” in stride. We can delight in the calluses brought on by the plow handle.

Today is another day to create. Though my season may differ from yours, we together work towards a common harvest.

Remember your creative path—the one God placed you on. Remember the delight and pace wisdom brings to the creative endeavor.

Don’t be hasty or join the throngs aiming at productivity at any cost. Don’t ransom your imagination for efficiency. Do the work. Endure the season. Find wisdom along your creative path.

Work first to be creative, not productive. The creative mind begins in a posture of reverence and joy.

It is not wrong to produce. The apple tree produces a lot of fruit, but it does so in season. A productivity mindset robs your inner life, which is essential for your imagination.

Consider this quote by Henri-Frederic Amiel.

"The man who has no inner life is the slave of his surroundings."

-Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Follow the Path That Leads to God's Voice.

Follow your creative path.

We must cultivate our inner lives by pursuing a different path, the creative path of nourishment, not stagnation.

To follow the world's drum beat is to pursue noise and consumption. We must chase beauty to keep our spirits pliable and our imaginations thriving.

What path are you on today? Is it noise that defines your life? Or is it something in the beyond?

The point of The Summer Slowdown Challenge is to get us all thinking differently. It's to get us discontented with the status quo. There's another rhythm out there.

Can you hear it?

The creative path is not about performance. It's about worship.

What You Get When You Buy the Summer Slowdown

✓ 90 minutes of video teaching

✓ 100-page full-color digital magazine

✓ Magazine includes 31-day Summer Slowdown Challenge

✓ Unlimited lifetime access