So many of us often seek out instant gratification. We want results and we want them immediately.
It happens when we go to the gym to get more fit and get frustrated when we don’t see progress in a few days. It happens when we start therapy and expect to figure out our entire struggles after just one hour session, and yet we have to understand that healing takes time.
We struggle with being patient and with waiting, especially when things do not go our way. This is how I feel right now as I am experiencing my 2nd flight delay in two days. Obviously, this situation is out of my control, but it is truly testing my patience. I want things to go off without delay, without a hitch, and on my timeline. But life doesn’t really go that way. I can’t control this situation, and so I will have to be okay with delayed gratification, and quite literally, a delayed arrival.
It feels like a string of bad things keeps happening to me, delayed flights, missed flights, extended layovers, spilled water on my laptop that led to its unfortunate death, and now another delayed flight and another arrival hours upon hours later than expected. But I am trying to create this as a teachable moment on patience and how patience impacts everything I do. This situation reminds me to appreciate delayed gratification, rather than needing gratification immediately.
Often times, we get so frustrated that things don’t go our way or change right away, so when things do change for the better, we often don’t appreciate the journey as much as we should. As I sit here, thinking about being patient, I remind myself that I must implement patience into my daily life as well, and especially into my career. I have to practice patience when thinking about my relationship, or my mother’s health. I have to remind myself that even though my ideas seem promising, it might take a lot of work and time before they provide me with the gratification I desire.
But I need to remember the journey once that gratification comes. When the gratification of my mother’s health condition improving comes, I want to remember the strength this journey gave us. When the gratification from my ideas I have to expand my career comes, I want to remember the lessons I learned and the people I met along the way that made the dream possible.
Even though it would be nice to get all that we desire from our hard work right away, it doesn’t always happen that way. Things do not always go off without a hitch. Often things in our life are delayed and we often don’t see the results from our hard work right away. But be patient, and don’t give up, because before you know it, your hard work will pay off, your goals will be reached and your gratification, despite possibly being delayed, will be even sweeter and the reward will be even greater.
Keep pushing yourself. Your dream is coming. And even though I know my journey home might literally be long, if I can practice patience in moments like these, I can practice patience in every moment and the journey will be that much more appreciated. Because without it, I wouldn’t have all that I have now.
Xo,