There’s nothing like a burning goal to inspire you to go for it, full throttle. You’re excited to write a book. You’re eager to grow your savings. You yearn to start a business.
But what happens when you run into the inevitable speed bumps and road blocks? The fire in your belly can rage out of control. Your drive turns to desperation.
You become convinced that if you don’t make it happen right now, it never will. Impatience is the enemy of success, the death knell to higher aspirations, a sure-fire path to mediocrity.
Your Ego, like an angry parent, is shrieking “hurry up or you’ll fall behind.”
These bogus threats are guaranteed to sap creativity, drain energy, delay progress.
My most memorable lesson in acceptance came during an early visit to a California farm where my daughter interned. The week I was there, the seedlings in the greenhouse were sprouting and needed to be planted. The baby chicks, now mature hens, had to be moved to bigger quarters. But nature had other plans. It poured. And rain was forecast for the next few days.
Here we were, all geared up to do both. I watched in awe at what happened next. No one got uptight. No one cursed nature. No teeth were gnashing or hands wringing. Instead, the farm owner shrugged his shoulders, and said: “Enjoy the down time.” What a concept!
We found other things to do. We cleaned the eggs. We did outreach. One woman made a delicious apple crisp. Another couple worked on a brochure. We had a scrumptious stir-fry, loaded with freshly picked veggies.
What really struck me: everyone seemed grounded in a deep sense of faith—a respect for nature’s timing, a deference to forces out of their control, a trust in a higher order—that was so strong, they were able to dispense with their plans, embrace the delays, go with the flow and enjoy the whole process, with nary a complaint. Eventually the seeds were planted and the hens were moved, both in more than enough time.
Acceptance isn’t just tolerating delays, but honoring the natural rhythm of growth, trusting in the outcome, even if it feels as if you’re going nowhere.
I’d love to know where in your life you could replace impatience with acceptance. Leave me a comment below.
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