Written by: Elizabeth Simmons, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Time is a key ingredient.
“I must practice the art of patience for nature acts never in haste” – Og Mandino.
In gardening, there is an average number of growing days allocated to most crops. You plant the seeds, fertilize the soil, water, and tend the beds. While some of the plants may mature close to the time specified, some will take weeks longer. Do you pull those immature crops and toss them out, or do you keep them in the soil and continue to care for them until they’ve reached readiness? Furthermore, if the plant is still thriving and growing (however slowly), do you start to wonder if the plant will mature, or do you expect that proper harvest will occur when the time is right?
If you are thriving, growing, and progressing however slowly, what does it matter how long it takes? You can only control what you are doing at this moment, and most often, the results of the efforts put forth will not show until months, if not years later. Everything will happen when it happens, and any attachment to a perceived time period will just be wasted energy. There comes the point where you need to let go of the outcome and trust the process.
This means you keep creating, producing, nurturing, experimenting and working because once you are where you want to be, you’ll still need to continue. The course will most likely not change too drastically, only your attitude towards it will.
If your wish is for 5,000 subscribers to your blog (just saying), once you reach that number, does that mean that you stop writing? Hell no, it means that you may be writing even more, so what does it matter if you have 50 subscribers or 5,000 subscribers? To reach 5,000 readers, you need to produce the quality of work that’s worthy of them, even when you only have 50. Your energy needs to be put into the work you are constructing, not worrying about why you do not have the results you wish for yet.
With almost anything, consistency over time is what will produce the greatest results. Time is a key ingredient; it is part of the mix. Without it, you’ll lose the chance to get better. You often feel the most pain when you try to control the amount of time it takes. You either push yourself too hard and too fast, creating both mental and physical stress, or worse, you stop all together because, according to your perception, it is taking too long. Either way, you experience the pain, not time.
Specify the results you want, envision them, see yourself accomplishing them, and then let go. Proceed like it will happen, shift to doing what you need to do, and then slowly, you will move to be who you need to be. This will have you move from wanting to doing to being.
Often, we place ourselves apart from nature, when in reality, we are part of it. A tree grows expecting to be a tree, and we are the same. We must grow, and we must see who we are meant to be and know that within ourselves that will happen.
We must embrace time as part of our journey, a key component in our growth. Stop wasting time focusing on time. Start accepting that your time is spent fabricating and creating the steps that will allow your future to unfold as you’ve seen it when you’re ready for it.
Check out Elizabeth on her website.
Elizabeth Simmons, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Liz Simmons is a woman of action in the career and life coaching field. A massive injury (full rupture of Achilles tendon) in 2010 made Liz ditch her corporate job of 10 years (Environmental Scientist) and start taking responsibility for her own life. Since then, Liz has inspired hundreds to transform their lives by making changes in their health, career, and mindset. Liz is the owner of Strength & Grace Life Coaching, a business mentor for EforAll (Entrepreneurship for All), an international speaker, a life coach for high schools, host of “The Pivot Posse” interview series, and author of a weekly blog. She has dedicated her life to helping others move from frustrated, apathetic, and insecure to focused, confident and courageous. Her mission is to help millennials with a passion develop the mindset and skills for becoming successful entrepreneurs.
