Playing the Waiting Game
This is a Mayzie Media production.
Hello most awesome one I'm Ahyiana Angel and you are listening to the Quit Playing Small podcast, your space for inspiration, encouragement, and hopefully goodness. Today, let's get into waiting. We're all impatient, right? Who wants to wait? None of us wanna wait for anything. But one thing that I realized is that being forced to wait on your time, your time, you know what I mean?
When I'm saying like your time, your time to shine, being forced to wait on your time to come, it can be an amazing opportu. We're conditioned though. We are conditioned from the start to want to see results immediately. We are conditioned to move fast, to accomplish fast, to attain at the youngest age, to be the best, the quickest possible.
I think we look at the people who have some of the things that we think we want in that short amount of time, and we feel envious, we feel jealous, we feel inspired. Sometimes we feel like, wow, I want to do that. And one thing that comes up for me is that we don't always know what that took behind the scenes or what it looked like.
Let's just think about an actor who gets their big break in a movie. And then lo and behold, you're watching Law & Order old reruns on a Saturday back to back episodes and boom, who do you see. A familiar face, that actor who got their big break, who's now this megastar and you're thinking, oh my gosh, this is so amazing for them.
They are killing it right now, but you don't know what it took to get there. And many of us admittedly want the oven baked results. While using microwave tactics. Let's take it back to your kitchen. For those of you who know your way around the kitchen, have you ever put something in the microwave and expected to take it out and have it taste like you took it out of the oven?
No. In order to get the juicy flavor of a freshly baked dish, you have to allow time to prepare the dish, to let it bubble to perfection in its juices, and finally let it stand so that the juices can marinate together and become one for a flavor filled explosion. Think of your process in the same way.
You have to give it time to flourish. You have to give it time to build the flavor. You have to give it time to know what ingredients to add in order to maximize the flavor. You may feel an itch, something nagging at you every day from your own insecurities, maybe from your peers, people around you, your significant other, your parents, all the things, maybe itching at you trying to compel you to rush what you desire.
But don't give in, use your will to wait. And this is not you waiting around for no good reason. We're talking about the type of waiting that includes working while you wait, but pacing yourself, leading up to something, pouring into what you're working on so that the expectation that you have of the end result will be warranted.
Because, you know, you've poured so much into this, that the results are going to be what you expect. Let's go back to our kitchen scenario. If you don't thaw the meat out properly, if you don't put the meat tenderizer on it, if you don't put all the key seasonings, if you don't have any of the extras, like the onions, the bell peppers, the things of that nature, the garlic to add to your dish.
If you don't marinate the meat. If you don't cook it on the right temperature. If you don't check it, if you don't allow it to sit and absorb the juices post oven, can you really expect that this is going to be your best meal yet? Your signature dish, the dish that you want to serve up to your family and friends out of love and have them enjoy it with smiles on their faces.
And praise you for how good it is. No, you can't expect that if you don't do all the things necessary to get that result. And sometimes that means waiting the extra time that it takes to let the dish cook up properly. And it's the same with you and your process and everything that you do waiting allows you time to observe.
You can then dissect the process. You can hone your skills. You can create alternative approaches. You can observe what other people are doing and how they're doing it. You can develop innovative solutions and finally. You can master your craft all while patiently waiting for your time to rise. When it's your time, you'll be able to outperform expectations and exceed anticipations because your success will be calculated.
You'll have tested out what works and what doesn't work. So your success will be intentional. Your win will be deliberate and your performance will display the skills that you have now mastered while waiting with patients, you'll know things that others who are trying to move fast, they just will never know.
You'll see things before they see things because you have patience. And that experience under your belt. In her book Grit, Angela Duckworth, she talks about developing a passion. And I was very curious to, to see what she had to say about the idea of passion. You hear that word thrown around so much. And so many people will tell you what they're passionate about, but if you ask them in depth questions about what they're passionate about, so many can't tell you beyond the surface because they're actually only interested. They're not yet passionate and she points out some really good nuggets. For you to really soak up and take in when you're thinking about yourself and assessing yourself. So if you haven't gotten your hands on a copy of the book, Grit, I highly recommended it. I am not finished with it, but what I've read so far, I'm certainly enjoying it.
And so she talks about making an effort to stay engaged with the things that you say that you're passionate about. And I was like, Ooh, this is, this is a good one. Because so many of us lose interest so quick, we drop what we say we're passionate about just as fast as we said, we were passionate about it if we're not seeing the results that we want to see. And she also mentions working on being curious and deepening your interest in something. And that really stood out to me too, because I think the more curious you are about whatever it is you're doing, the more you have an opportunity to learn. And when we're blinded by trying to achieve the results and trying to achieve them quickly, the curiosity can fall by the wayside.
So there's one little piece that I want to share with you that she says in the book that I felt like would be a great way to close out this episode. She says, "if you stay engaged for more than a few years in any endeavor, you'll need to find a way to enjoy the nuances that only a true aficionado can appreciate."
Ugh, that speaks to me, and I hope it speaks to you too. So in summarizing everything that we chatted about today, give yourself grace, take your time, be intentional with the way that you move toward what you're trying to accomplish and know that waiting is not a bad thing. Find the opportunity in the wait.
I'm Ahyiana Angel and you have been listening to the Quit Playing Small podcast. Thank you so much for spending time with me. I will speak with you soon. Big hugs.
Quit Playing Small Book - https://amzn.to/2EENAbb