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Over the past two weeks, I have taken my proverbial foot off of the accelerator a bit. This has been hard. For as long as I can remember, happiness has always been linked to progress in my mind. As you may imagine, I was naturally reluctant to ease up a bit out of fear. I thought, “Things are going really well right now? Will I remain this happy and content if I slow down?”
I realized some things in the midst of this self-imposed siesta:
- Progress is not necessarily halted when you take your foot off the gas; momentum has a way of keeping things moving.
- In times of relative stillness, we invite room for reflection. In this instance, it dawned on me that I have been very impatient with myself in a number of areas: growth of my real estate business, refinement of my writing process, and of course, overall growth of this blog. When I paused to slow down a bit, it became clear that I need to be patient with myself.
The Value of Patience
I’ve never been a patient person. Mrs. Superhero can attest to that. I have worked hard to become increasingly mindful of this tendency over the past few years, as impatience seems to be a genetic tendency within my family tree.
When I was young, my uncle and Superhero Grandpa were avid boaters and fishermen. One foggy morning, they started out for an early morning to cast their lines in Lake Michigan. In their haste, they forgot to check the weather report. As they approached the big lake via the channel, it became clear that the present conditions were very poor. Turning around in the channel was impossible, so they did what had to be done — they pressed onward into the crashing waves in an attempt to turn around navigate back into calmer waters.
My uncle is an expert boater, but he knew the writing was on the wall: this wasn’t going to end well. Superhero Grandpa knew this, too, and in one swift, knee-jerk reaction that he would fortunately live to regret, he dove into the choppy water and began to swim to shore. In his impatience, he forgot to don a life vest.
Grandpa was able-bodied and very strong at this stage of his life, yet he has little match for the waves. He fought and fought, harder and harder, yet he realized that his efforts were wasteful. Moments later, my uncle also abandoned the boat and came to Grandpa’s rescue with a second life vest just as exhaustion was about to set in.
I think of this story often, but it is especially poignant when I am struggling to be patient. Like most people, I am a product of the drive-thru generation. I want it now, and I have been told that I deserve everything I could ever want. Fail once, and work harder and longer the next time and you’ll surely get what you seek, I’ve been told. If you work harder, you can speed up normal timelines and reach the finish line faster, says the world. These ideas stand in direct contrast to my Grandpa’s story, and personal experience paints a different picture, as well.
The notion that hard work solves problems fails to account for all of the other important variables inherent in a specific endeavor. For the single father working an extra job to rebuild emergency savings, hard work and hustle aren’t always the solution. Shifting money into a hot mutual fund or single stock may not be the answer for the middle-aged person grasping for an earlier retirement. And for myself, hard work as a realtor and blogger is only one piece of the pie. Shortcuts rarely work, a truth which underscores the importance of patience.
So each day I am going to remind myself to exercise patience. I am going to remind myself that is OK to let up on the gas, coast a bit, and ride the wave (How is THAT for a mixed metaphor?). I have already discovered that happiness and contentment may be found in moments of patience. I look forward to experiencing further lessons in patience in the days ahead.
Matt @ Optimize Your Life says
December 8, 2016 at 8:24 AMGreat points and a really poignant story. It is so tempting to put your head down and go go go when you want to achieve results, but this is often counterproductive, as you note. I try to make a little bit of time each day to go for a walk or read fiction or do something else that is entirely unrelated to making progress. Being able to step away from your work often allows you to come back to it with a clearer head and achieve results much quicker.