On the Frustration of Waiting
Your relationship with waiting impacts the quality of your life. Life is long periods of waiting punctuated by moments of completion.
Waiting turns me into a caged animal. An annual physical nearly puts me in the hospital. My pulse is 95 and my palms sweat. Anxiety is a response to delay. If you’ve ever applied for a job or interviewed for a promotion you probably hate waiting.
Delayed flights drive people crazy. When flight attendants ask passengers to stay in their seats so people who need to make a connection can deplane, everyone gets up.
Facets of waiting:
Dread is a painful form of waiting that causes procrastination. Putting things off prolongs pain.
Expectancy is a joyful form of waiting even though it’s frustrating sometimes. Pregnancy includes anticipation and anxiety. Expectancy infuses joy into life.
The weeks before Christmas are better than Christmas day. Trees, lights, and music provide frivolous amusement. Songs like Rudolf and Frosty are goofy. The deeper advantage of Christmas or any holiday are the days before they arrive. Apart from anticipation, a holiday is like any other day.
How to wait well:
Our attitude while we wait reflects the way we think about ourselves. Confidence waits better than insecurity.
To be good at life you have to be good at letting things go.
Preparation infuses wait-time with meaning. The more you prepare, the more meaning you create. My wife prepared for nearly a year before taking the two-day CPA exam.
Lift up your head and notice glory. The world is filled with glory. Even people are glorious.
Always show up to serve. Seek to make life better everywhere you go, even when you wait.
To be good at life you have to be good at waiting.
What does it mean to wait well?
Still curious:
How to Answer the Voice in Your Head that Creates Things You Dread
Impatient to Get Rid of Anxiety? Impatience Causes Anxiety
I am just so anxious just reading this post…
Absolutely! 🙂
My wife used to own a soft-serve ice cream store. There was usually a line of people (8-to-12) waiting to buy their favorite ice cream. I discovered that many people actually enjoyed waiting it line. It gave them a chance to chat with the other people.
If you reframe “waiting time” as an opportunity to do something more positive, it can be an enjoyable experience.
Doing what you can while you wait is one way to wait well. Talk to people. Read a book. Study the menu so you don’t create a bottleneck when you get to the window.
Thank you. All this Advent I have been focused on waiting and the work I have to do while I wait. I struggle with it all.
This is exactly what I needed today. I am in the middle of a move to another city and can get into a tizzy waiting for contractors, etc, to respond. I am so eager to get settled into my new home. Your post made me pause to consider the war in Ukraine and Iran; the migrants who just crossed the Rio Grande. What am I so anxious about?? Thank you for what you do, Dan!
Rosanne, do you ever look for the cameras and microphones in your office after one of Dan’s posts seems to be pointed directly at you? I have!
Life is an adventure, good luck in yours.
Hope for Joy(in waiting) is more enjoyed than Hope enjoyed…