Uncategorized

And then you wait

January 15, 2016

I’m Cherylanne.
I am the trusted advisor ambitious women want in their corner to help them fully embody their potential.
Need help managing your energy?
Download Now

talk to a coach

listen to the podcast

free resources

follow on social

Invite Cherylanne to Speak

Stop Feeling So Tired All The Time: 8 hacks for working women that really work!

download my free guide:

I hate waiting. My desire to efficiently fill every open moment with a productive activity makes me twitch when I’m confronted with unexpected downtime. I just can’t stand the inefficiency of sitting there and doing nothing!

As a result, I’ve all but perfected the art of allocating my ever-present to-do list into slivers of time so as to fill each moment with an accomplishment.

in the meantime stopwatch,jpg

Sometimes it’s worse than others. I get antsy in the drop-off line at school and start dusting the dashboard. I reapply lipstick at red lights. I take correspondence with me when I have doctor’s appointments so I can do it in the waiting room. I wipe down the counters in the kitchen while I’m waiting for my seven year old to write each spelling word. (There are 15 of them. He’s p-r-e-c-i-s-e about handwriting. I could basically clean the entire kitchen AND whip out a pot of homemade chicken stock while this is going on. God love that child.)

I am an expert time-filler.

But lately I’m beginning to think that maybe my efforts to this end are misguided. I’m starting to wonder if maybe there is magic in the waiting time. Purpose, even.

By filling every open second with an activity, am I missing the very moments that were designed to give me pause?

What if we NEED to wait sometimes? And if we do, then why does is have to be so hard? 

Little opportunities to practice waiting show up every day, but sometimes we’re confronted with a longer season of waiting. For Mr. Right. For the dream job to say yes. For the baby. For the illness to be healed. For the depression to lift. For the prodigal child to return.

It’s these that really test us, and these that make me even more certain that there is purpose in the waiting, meaning behind these periods stretching between two points of certainty – one in the past and one in the future.  It’s not so much what we do in the meantime…it’s who we become.

As I write this, I’m flooded by memories of my attempts to convince an overtired toddler that it was time for a nap. Through protests, and wiggles, and requests for drinks and cuddles, I persisted in lulling that child to sleep because I knew the remainder of the day would be so much better if she had that nap.

What if we’re being asked to rest…to lie still…to wait…so that the rest of our life will be better?

What if transformation happens while we wait?   

There’s only one way to find out.

 

This post originally appeared on the Let Your Life Shine Blog in February 2015.
Add a comment
+ show Comments
- Hide Comments
  1. Renee says:

    I’m printing this and hanging it where I can see it everyday. It’s brilliant, and I needed to hear it. Thank you.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

On the Air

The Brilliant Balance Podcast

Ambitious women like you have a LOT to do. So, if you want to spend less of your life on what you "have to do" and more on what you "want to do," then join me each week for ideas, inspiration, and insight on how to make the shift.

LIsten in
prioritize you

Work with us

Schedule a free session to share your story and see what's possible for you.

talk to a coach

Instagram

Keep up with the latest from Brilliant Balance and add a daily dose of inspiration to your social feed!

@cskolnicki