Time
I’m an impatient person by nature. I always want everything done yesterday. I have been known to take on too many house projects and have to call on family to bail me out when I didn’t allow enough time to finish it. Or randomly need to hang art late at night before a party the next day. Or pull an all-nighter to get something done, like painting the living room a month after giving birth because I couldn’t live with it another moment.
Prioritizing my time in a way that leaves room for rest is probably not my strongest feature. I always think it can be done even if it requires a lack of sleep to do it. I inherently know that things take time to happen like I know that mentally, but in action, that’s an entirely different story.
During covid, I decided to keep myself busy by doing projects, learning how to make bread, and planting a garden.
I spent an afternoon planting the tiny seedling boxes with the kids, and then we waited and waited and waited. I vascillated between overwatering and completely forgetting about them. A few weeks later, we had a few sprouts…not the bountiful sprout harvest I was expecting but a few. We replanted them in the beautiful boxes Anthony made for us and then waited some more. A few days later, my impatience got the best of me…on a trip to Costco, I bought pregrown plants and planted them in the box to give us the aesthetic herb garden I was hoping for when we started. I may or may not have filled the kids in when they very excitedly told me the plants had grown overnight.
Watching the plants grow is just one example of my impatience with time. On the one hand, I want it to slow down so my kids won’t grow up so fast, and on the other hand, I can’t wait to exit the teen years.
I have learned a few hard lessons on time and impatience along the way. A very dear friend told me once, “You can have it all, just not at the same time.” Applying that perspective completely changes the way you see things. If you keep in mind that someday…whatever it is you are impatient about will come, it’s easier to be patient. In my impatience and business, I haven’t always lived in the moment and valued the present time. When my brother passed, that was a lesson in valuing every moment you have with the ones you love, and suddenly, everything else seems small. Building a business is hard work, and my impatience with our progress is always creeping up on me, but I remind myself frequently that things take time, and not just knowing that but resting in that really makes the difference. I quickly forget about all of the progress we have made.
If I wouldn’t have planted the plants that didn’t really thrive, I would have missed out on those moments with the kids had I done it the easy way first. If I exit the teen years too soon, I would miss the moments that build a lifelong friendship with your kids that are turning into adults.
Next time you find impatience creeping up on you, take a deep breath and remind yourself that there is so much goodness to be found in the waiting. I’ll be over here reminding myself to slow down and enjoy the moments and that whatever it is that’s driving me crazy really can wait.
