Waiting isn’t wasted time
THE world is waiting and it is not comfortable. The blame game when played at an industrial scale, retards progress, dulls vision and disempowers the gullible. Someone seems to have suggested and sold wholesale to humanity the idea that waiting is bad and that everything in life should happen in an instance. Life by its nature is not a drive -in restaurant; things take time.
Thinking everything happens on demand is lost and misleading. Great things take time and great people do not do great things in a day.
Greatness requires the power of preparation, the discipline of process, the grace of waiting. If you cannot wait you cannot win in the marathon run of life. Waiting is not wasted time. It is an investment to create capacity, cast character, sculpt strategies and forge foundations.
Mrs. Sue Monk Kidd, born August 12, 1948, is best known for her touching global best-selling book: “The Secret Life of the Bees”, that has an enduring and touching message. In her bold 1990 book, “When the Heart Waits”, she explores her spiritual journey and offers inspiring insights on the meaning and essence of waiting.
She writes: “I had tended to view waiting as mere passivity. When I looked it up in my dictionary however, I found that the words passive and passion come from the same Latin root, ‘pati’ which means “to endure”. Waiting is thus both passive and passionate. It’s a vibrant, contemplative work. It means descending into self, into God, into the deeper labyrinths of prayer.
“It involves listening to disinherited voices within, facing the wounded holes in the soul, the denied and undiscovered, the places one lives falsely. It means struggling with the vision of who we really are in God and moulding the courage to live that vision.” What deep words and insights that invite reflection.
No moment of waiting must ever be squandered in boredom and listless living. Waiting should be both “passionate and passive”. It allows for clarifying and yet deep work and reflection.
Waiting helps us develop important character traits and connect the dots in our experiences. It helps us turn impetuosity into patience, knowledge into wisdom, and translate confusion into clarity. It is not what we are waiting for that matters most in the waiting equation but who we become. As we wait in a season of waiting, the returns will be revealed in the season of action that is soon coming.
Waiting is not wasted time and neither is it a time of wasting away. Waiting is not just empty hope and baseless idleness. Waiting is a reflection of deep faith and resolute focus on the future.
It is an inner confidence that goals will be reached, barriers broken and time will speak. Waiting is a cry for opportunity and a preparation to maximise the moment when opportunity finally comes knocking. Waiting is not an exercise in futility and vanity. Waiting means that there is a purpose and a plan wriggling its way through the maze of time. What do you do then when you are waiting?
All progress takes time and the raw material of greatness is time. Waiting is a chance to make progress where it matters most. Waiting an opportunity to develop your root system and ensure that your foundations are strong and broad.
Waiting allows you to prepare and challenge yourself to go to higher levels. Every crisis is a message that what worked in the past will not work in the future. Every crisis signals the need for a change of strategy.
Waiting is a noble and shaping experience. It is when you have nothing to wait for that you must be concerned and seek help quickly. You are truly old and obsolete when you no longer have anything to wait for.
Waiting allows you to position yourself and ensures that you are fit for function. Waiting and hoping makes hunting, exciting and engaging. If you have no patience to wait you will never be a good hunter of greatness.
It is waiting and hoping that makes prayer meaningful. It is waiting and hoping that makes learning meaningful. If your present knowledge and expertise is adequate for the next battle-field you are not fit to go into the future. How then do you make waiting a great investment? Give your wait a “S.H.A.P.E” and the shape of the things you are waiting for will appear.
As you wait START something. Do not allow procrastination to canker your soul. You cannot keep threatening without taking action. Move and engage the action gear. The best way of starting is starting, period. The best way to start moving is making that first difficult step.
Never be disappointed because your dream looks like a foetus. Do not be disappointed by the prospect of starting small. Today, a seed and tomorrow, a forest. Never underestimate what the efforts of a decade could do. Do not be afraid to move slowly, be afraid of standing still or to abandoning the worthy walk because it is difficult or delayed.
As you wait HARNESS something. No crisis should ever be wasted and no waiting room should ever be wasted. As you wait harness your pain and deploy it as the fuel of motivation.
Harness your gifts and turn them into useful lessons. Harness your time and use it to make personal progress. Harness the power of relationships and grow in ways that have meaning.
When a river’s power is harnessed it can generate electricity.
When the rays of the sun are harnessed they can generate power. Anything when harnessed will create wonders.
Stop wasting your pain in regret and blame. Stop thinking victim thoughts and waiting for the world to dole payout to you. Let your waiting cause you to harness this opportunity and create wonders. Opportunity is always there; always waiting for you to show up and harness it.
As you wait ACT on something. In life there are two things that quieten or fuel arguments: reasons and results. Reasons simply do not count because there are usually merely excuses for not taking action. It is results that matter and speak loudly and effectively.
You cannot get results without action. Take radical, focused and sustained action. Waiting is not an idle purposeless process. Waiting, done well, is full of diligent, structured work. Waiting is a process that processes you and primes you to perform at the highest level.
As you wait PLAN something. Waiting is an important opportunity for preparation and planning. In the “Art of War”, Sun Tzu, encourages us to emulate the warriors of old by these words: “Plan for was is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.
“The most difficult things in the world must be done while they are still easy, the greatest things in the world must be done while they are still small. For this reason, sages never do what is great, and this is why they can achieve that greatness.”
You achieve greatness by planning and deploying simple actions, far from the madding and negative crowd. This advice of Sun Tzu still holds true: “He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.”
As you wait EXECUTE something. Waiting is an opportunity to review, refine and relaunch effective strategy. Strategic thinking requires continually looking at the context, course correction and making necessary shifts, and adaptations. In laying out your strategy and executing it attend to the essential elements of a good strategy. Define your end-game and the desired outcomes.
Define the arena of battle and focus your efforts on the priorities. Fighting battles that do not need to be fought will leave you exhausted, confused and feeling abused. Be clear of where you will play and where you will not play. Stage your action with logic. What steps have you laid out that you will follow? Define the vehicles to your end game. How will you navigate to your destination? Execution requires that you define and then drive vehicles. You cannot generate strategic momentum while standing still. Be clear of the difference that you are bringing and where value is in what you do.
Keep waiting for your bus and do not take the wrong bus simply because you see others moving. A “me-too” strategy executed without understanding the logic of battle and without proper planning is a suicidal tendency for any leader. Wait actively and you will be grateful you did.
Committed to your greatness.
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author, and growth mentor. He is a cutting-edge strategy, team-building and organisation development facilitator and consultant. His life purpose is to inspire and promote greatness. He can be reached at: mkamwendo@gmail.com and His website is: www.miltonkamwendo.com