How many items on your to-do list have been on there for days, or even weeks?
When you look at your to-do list and see something that’s been on there for a long time now, how good do you feel about that?
I’m guessing not very.
There are so many ways we beat up on ourselves. One of those ways is a sense of urgency—a fear of missing our moment, losing out on opportunities or being too slow.
The key word in that last paragraph is fear. Anytime fear is in the driver’s seat, you’re headed for a cliff. And the sad part is that we head for the rails when there is no real peril.
Because here’s a truth for you: There is no such thing as “too late.” (Click to Tweet!) If you’re not acting on something, it’s because on some level it’s not in alignment with what you want.
That may be a subconscious level, and your conscious mind hasn’t yet gotten that memo. Which creates the perfect recipe for your mean little voice to start chiming in on how you’re too lazy, or scattered or unfocused. But really it’s all just a ruse.
However long it takes you to accomplish something, or get clear on something, or figure something out, is exactly how long it takes. It is worthy of celebration. It is perfect.
Timing is still important: You can read a book at one point in time and think, “Well that was a waste of time.” You can pick up the same book a few months or years later and boom, it produces a major a-ha moment. The same goes for people. I know if I had met my husband even one year earlier I wouldn’t have given him a second thought, he was that far outside my ‘type.’ One breakup and a crap ton of mind-body practice later and I was open enough to see that the rocks in his head fit the holes in mine (a line from Roz Chast’s hilarious and poignant memoir of caring for her aging parents called Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?).
So whatever is feeling like it’s taking too long in your life right now, ask yourself, How might this be perfect pace? What might this process be here to teach me?
The opportunities are there if you look with an open mind.
If you’d like to hear more about this, and other ways we fool ourselves into thinking things are all wrong when they’re all right, join me tomorrow on my free teleclass:
A Beautiful Mindset: Simple Shifts in Perspective That Create Lasting Change
A free 30-minute teleclass
Thursday, February 19 (Chinese New Year!)
2pm ET with a replay at 9:30pm ET