Time is a Key Ingredient
“I must practice the art of patience for nature acts never in haste” – Og Mandino
In nature it is accepted and understood that time is an essential part of the growth and developmental process. Why then when it comes to changing, growing, and molding ourselves do we think that time is malleable and the quicker the better? If your goal is to shed 50lbs, would you be upset if you achieved the goal but it took you two years? Would you rather just stay as you are now because being 50lbs lighter in your mind should only take a year, and two years is too long to achieve what you want?
In gardening there is an average number of Grow Days allocated to most crops. You plant the seeds, fertilize the soil, water and tend the beds, and while some of the plants may mature close to the time specified, some will take weeks longer. Do you just pull those immature crops with all the others and toss them out or do you keep them in the soil and continue to care for them until they’ve reached readiness? Furthermore, if the plant is still thriving and growing (however slowly) do you start to wonder if the plant will mature, or do you expect that proper harvest will occur when the time is right?
You can only control what you are doing in this moment, and most often the results of the efforts put forth will not show themselves until months, if not years later. Everything will happen when it will happen, and any attachment to a perceived time period will just be wasted energy. I know this from experience, I’ve worked tirelessly in the pursuit of goals, constantly rechecking to see if my work is paying off, evaluating the numbers over and over again when really I could have just spent that time and energy getting better at what I was working on. There comes a point where you just need to let go of the outcome, focus on the process and trust that it will all work out. If you keep focusing on what you want, you will stay in wanting, you need to work as if you already have what you desire. Which means you just keep creating, producing and working because once you are where you want to be you’ll still need to put energy into the process. The process will most likely not change too drastically, only your attitude towards the process will.
If your wish is for 5,000 subscribers to your blog (just saying) once you reach that number does it mean that you will no longer write a blog? Hell no, it means that you may be writing even more, so what does it really matter if you have 50 subscribers or 5,000 subscribers? In order to reach 5,000 readers you need to produce the quality of work that’s worthy of them, even when you are only at 50. Your energy needs to be put into the work you are constructing, not into worrying about why you do not have the results you wish for yet. With almost anything, consistency over time is what will produce the greatest results. Time is a key ingredient, it is part of the mix, you need time, without it you’ll lose the chance to get better, find new avenues, be creative about your process and your growth will be more painful because, just like adolescent growing pains you’d be making leaps and bounds that you’re not ready for yet.
The results will happen when they are meant to happen, trust in this. The more time spent looking for what you want to happen the more you are acting like you only want to want it to happen. Specify the results you want, envision them, see yourself accomplishing them and then let them go. Acting like you already have what you desire will shift to doing what you need to do and then slowly you will move to being who you want to be, move from having to doing to being. It’s up to you to show that you have what you desire, that you are doing what you want to do, and are who you want to be.
Often we place ourselves apart from nature, when in reality we are part of it. A tree grows expecting to be a tree and we are the same. We will grow and be how we want to be, we will see who we are meant to be and know that within ourselves that will happen. We are to embrace time as part of us, part of our journey a key component in our growth process. Stop wasting time focusing on time, and start accepting that your time is to be spent fabricating and creating the steps that will allow your future to unfold as you’ve seen it when you’re ready for it.
Copyright 2020 Strength & Grace Life Coaching LLC