I found an old email file this last weekend.
Okay, truth: I found several. I’m not saying how many.
These were email files filled with advice and instructions from coaches and consultants I hired in the past.
As I read some of these emails, I blushed.
There were so many things they’d suggested that I never actually tried.
Why?
Truth: it would have been too much work. I hired them secretly hoping for an easy magic pill. I didn’t want to be patient, build things, split test.
My impatience, which once upon a time helped me write a book no one thought I could write, had became a liability.
Doing the work that we are burning to do takes titanic patience. Grit. Slowing down so you can speed up later. That’s never been easy – read almost any young artist’s letters bemoaning how long her work is taking – but now, in our hyper-instant go-viral-or-go-home times, patience seems wrongheaded. Bad business. There has to be a way to make it happen this week, or by the end of the summer, or before you turn 40/50/60.
There just has to be!
Truth: looking for shortcuts has cost me. Cost not only time, energy, and money, but most painfully, my impatience battered my deepest desires.
Impatience made me believe the lie that I could not _____. (I could fill in that blank with so many things so let’s just leave it blank.)
I’m not claiming I’ve become the patient one. If I did that, Bob & Lillian would write you a blog post consisting of one humongous snort.
All I’m claiming is I’ve been watching this pattern with a loving eagle eye and I’m asking others to help me see it. I’m putting in the hours writing something I care about. I’m practicing yoga every day. I’m limiting email and social media (speeds me up & I fall into draining comparisons). I’m reminding myself what I’m devoted to: creating deeply and truly, and praying that my work is of service.
How about you? Is impatience holding you back? Or maybe you’re too patient, in which case, let’s do a switcheroo? I’ll swap you a container ship of slapdash zip for one of loving small daily steps. A win-win!
Love,
Jen
P.S. Care to share?
Patience is beautiful. Give your great work the time and devotion it needs.
(Click to Tweet.)
P.P.S. I’m going to act on some of these ancient coaching suggestions. What advice have you ignored in the past that it’s now time to heed?