It's Going To Take A Little Longer
“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
This writing is Certified Human
The Obstacle
Everything feels like it takes longer than it should. Delays, confusion, waiting on other people, waiting for resources. Even simple projects seem to take much longer than anticipated.
The delay can create anxiety and frustration. Our performance suffers when we spend energy internally and externally complaining about how long things are taking.
We add misery to our suffering by comparing how long things take to how long we think they should take.
What is, is, and things take as long as they will take.
The Gift and Opportunity
We know the thing needs to be done, so we do it. We can accept that it will take as long as it takes.
We can go into it knowing things will get in the way. There will be complications, delays, frustrations, and unexpected obstacles along the way.
We can keep our energy focused on what we're doing and not bleed it out over how long it's taking or everything preventing us from finishing.
We can refocus and get back to performing by doing what we can with what we have.
We can be more tolerable to be around and less miserable inside by accepting what is and getting on with it.
We can know it's going to take a little bit longer.
The Practice of Self-Mastery
• Expect it to take longer
• Accept the delays and complications
• Focus on what can be done
• Get on with it
CHEAT CODE: EXPECT → ACCEPT → FOCUS → DO
The Why
Everything takes longer than it should. I constantly find myself getting frustrated over the length of time it takes to do even seemingly simple projects.
Nothing goes as planned, and even simple things take longer than expected.
When it does, I find myself wanting to be frustrated. If I don't monitor my frustration with the delays and complications, I become irritable with the people around me. Most of the time, they are just there or trying to help.
Even the smallest of things seems to become complicated somehow. This is a recurring theme in my life. It always has been and probably always will be.
So I'm not sure why I'm surprised when it happens with nearly everything that I do.
I can be more content and focused if I accept this, dig in, and get it done without placing expectations or conditions on being happy while doing so.
The people around me will not feel that frustration if I don't allow it to settle in.
Things always take longer than they should.
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