Patience is not simply the ability to wait
“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.”
~Walter Elliott~
I often find myself impatient with the pace of my progress. Waiting for my life to move forward can sometimes feel like I’m watching paint dry.
There are so many moments when we feel like our life is at a standstill. This is generally where I double down with my intensity. I hit it with everything I can. The crash comes soon after from the inevitable collision of my mind, body, and spirit as they’re pushed beyond their limits.
The idea of having to wait for anything is a first-world problem. We are a society that can decide we want a new a coffee machine at 9pm and have it delivered to our door the next day! We email or text someone and expect an immediate response and the idea that someone may take a whole hour to respond to a text sends us spiralling into a plethora of false assumptions.
And that is just a text.
What about that book you wish would just write itself?
What about the scales that still shows you being 3 stone heavier than you want to be?
What about that bank account that still isn’t bigger than your basic bills?
These are not things we want to wait for.
We want the juice without the squeeze.
We’ve grown so impatient with the idea of waiting for results that we act like moving slowly is a poison to progress. We default to believing the antidote is a shot of intensity straight to the veins. But all that gives us is further frustration, anger and guilt that we’re not doing enough, and the feeling that we need to push harder, hustle more and work ourselves to an early grave!
It’s such a dysfunctional approach to life.
When I reflect on certain points in my life there wasn’t a day that passed where I would be free of niggling self-doubt and an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness.
I should’ve been Sh*****g diamonds with the amount of pressure I put on myself.
Some of that was understandable and seemingly unavoidable. A single mum – 3 mouths to feed, 3 backs to clothe, a house to pay for and heat and all without a pot to p**s in. My mental and physical health was in free fall and I am not ashamed to admit that sometimes I just wanted it all to end.
It was those struggles in the darkest of times that led to a life-changing realisation.
I realized that there are two ways to approach making progress. You can hit it hard with intensity. Or you can set a long-term aim with consistency.
Which of these do you think is sustainable for making progress?
You know the children’s story about the hare and the tortoise?
Funny that my daughters favourite saying just lately is “slow and steady wins the race” I notice she says it to me more and more – when I need to hear it but don’t realise I need to hear it.
I am definitely a ‘hit it hard’ with intensity kind of girl. I have to work at patience and keeping faith.
Who knew so much wisdom could come from childhood stories? These are lessons. Simple and profound principles on approaching life that we sometimes need reminding of.
We do like to make life complicated sometimes and it really isn’t is it?
We all overestimate what we can accomplish in a day, but we underestimate what we can accomplish in a year with steady momentum.
How do you write a book? By establishing a daily writing habit.
How do you lose 3 stone? By moving your body every day and eating less than you burn.
How do you get out of debt? By making a plan to spend less than you earn (and invest the difference) or find a way to earn more than you need to spend.
You’re not going to write a book in a day, but there’s a damn good chance you’ll have one in a year.
You’re not going to lose 3 stone in a day, but you certainly could in a year.
You won’t solve your money problems in a day, but you’ll set a trajectory for wealth creation that lasts the rest of your life.
How different could your life be a year from now if you committed to something that’s important to you?
Sit with that idea for a moment. Let it soak in.
What would it feel like to hold that book in your hands? Smell the pages, feel your words across the pages.
What would it feel like to look at that scale and see the number you want to see? How tall do you stand? What opportunities does it open up?
What would it feel like to be debt-free and investing in your future? Imagine buying the things you want and having everything you need.
Visualise it. Feel it. See it in your mind’s eye.
Wait for the goosebumps….
That is peace of mind, relief, and a sense of fulfilment wrapped up in a huge bow on Christmas morning.
That is the realization that you can have almost anything you want in your life if you stay disciplined with your priorities.
That is the power of consistent daily habits.
There’s a saying about hope not being a strategy for change. I do believe in hope, it is a wonderful feeling and emotion. But I’ve seen myself get stuck for years waiting, wanting, and wishing for a better life. Hope alone didn’t rescue me from the depths of my despair.
Hope is necessary but hope alone is not enough.
Hope inspires action and it is the power of the action – putting one-foot infront of the other that leads to results.
Every action you take is a vote toward the person you want to be.
The more we align the things we do on a daily basis with the person we want to become, the more fulfilment we feel in the little things that get us there. The feeling of being fulfilled is a happy contagion that attracts more action to fulfilment which gives us more of the feeling of fulfilment.
What do you wish you could change if only it didn’t feel so hard?
And what could it mean for your life if every day you prioritized this change and did one small thing to work toward it?
Make the decision to commit to a simple daily habit that reflects the person you want to be and the life you want to live.
When you do this, you’re deciding to take back control of your life.
You’re deciding to give yourself a better future.
You’re deciding that you matter.
You are creating magic within you and all you need to do is take one small step.