The Waiting Place

An embrace of the moments when waiting becomes visible can remind us not of the time we are losing but of the ways we can demystify the mythology of instantaneous culture and ever-accelerating paces of “real time.” 

https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/12/17/jason-farman-delayed-response/

This is taken from Maria Popova a writer I admire for her ability to weave information, wisdom, and creative inspiration into to one post. Her posts a dense but when you finish, you feel light as a feather. Anyhow, right now I’m in a place where I’m waiting. I do want to take my time. I’m willing to step away from control. I’m willing to strategize to make the best choice for my community, but I’m gunna be honest, the wait is rough.

What’s interesting is that I didn’t realize how much I’ve allowed this waiting place to stop me from functioning. I feel like I would be more productive if I had everything I needed right now. While being in the waiting place, I’ve gone into a slump. I feel like there’s nothing else to be done since I’m waiting. It feels strange and even stranger when I’m fully aware of it. It turns into this internal struggle ultimately leading to a nap. Which is not resourceful, if you asked me.

So how to change my mindset in my waiting place?

I think there are a million ways to change my mindset on waiting but Brain Pickings was the first place I started. And Brain Pickings gave me exactly what I needed. Let’s start here.

Waiting, as represented by silences, gaps, and distance, allows us the capacity to imagine that which does not yet exist and, ultimately, innovate into those new worlds as our knowledge expands.

Jason Farman taken from https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/12/17/jason-farman-delayed-response/

If I shift my mindset from there’s nothing I can do, to, I have so many things I can think up to get me excited about my future, maybe that will help. Let’s keep going. Jason Forman is also quoted here saying,

Waiting points to our desires and hopes for the future; and while that future may never arrive and our hopes may never be fulfilled, the act of reflecting on waiting teaches us about ourselves. 

Imagine that. Allowing this time to change me. I stepped into this month a person only slightly aware of her lack of waiting skills and will leave this month as a woman who waits better than she did before. This is getting more inspiring as we go. Glad we’re doing this together. Now for the two practical strategies to transform our waiting from a negative to a positive experience.

• The first is to remember the positives of waiting. It’s easy to fall into a mindset where we feel like things should go our way, but it’s so valuable to find the upside to situations that don’t go the way we’d prefer them.
• The second is to think of time as a collective thing, rather than distinct from one another. This mindset shift, she says, is empathetic. It’s a wonderful thing to wait a tad bit longer because you understand the situation of another person.
• and for a bonus, I’ll add one of my own. It’s always important to focus on what you can control. You may not be able to control your waiting time but you can control how you use that time to your advantage. And since we’ve made it to the last strategy, I think we can both say, we’re starting in the right place; focused on changing our mindset.