Of Patience and Procrastination

It is said that the best things come to those who wait, but this is perhaps a rather unrefined, unsophisticated and ultimately unhelpful aphorism. We can agree that patience is most definitely a virtue, but I would contend that waiting is a sin. I use this word rather mischievously, not to imply a theologically skewed summation of your virtues that will lead you to eternal damnation, but more as a snappy way of implying that a measure of ignorance is being willfully applied.

But how do we determine where patience ends and procrastination begins? For this is what waiting truly is, a mechanism for avoiding committing to a decision.

Patience can perhaps be considered a good strategy when things are somewhat outside of the locus of our control. If you have a favoured outcome but there appears no logical path to doing anything about it, then we will be best served by bringing acceptance to the situation and moving on with other aspects of our lives. If circumstance changes, we can take stock and if still relevant to act upon an opportunity, then great. If not, we let it go. Windows of opportunity are opening and closing all the time.

Procrastination, which is usually associated with situations that are within our locus of control, is largely a less beneficial approach. Quite often we know there is something that would be a good thing to do, and yet we find a million and one excuses to wait. \”I must think about this\”, \”I must put them first\”. \”I am obligated to this so can\’t possibly change tack now\”. And yet all the while there is a little voice inside urging us to go for it anyway.

Of course, it doesn\’t help if we\’re stressed and have chronic negative filters as we touched upon last month.

So how do we best aid the discussion with some ideas for making better decisions? Well, it\’s a subject area that merits more attention than a newsletter dispatch, but one idea may be to bring some light to whether there is a higher value and a lower value. In many decisions there is something that concerns love, health, inspiration, personal development or sustainability. And often there may be a competing concern that touches upon money, possessions, career, status, safety and familiarity.

In many cases, choosing the higher value will bring the rewards, particularly if we do so in a decisive or spontaneous way. When we have perspective, we find these important higher values are not the sorts of things that benefit from being left to wait and wither. If we do, we may find the window of opportunity closes, or that a sense of stagnation and lack of inspiration enters our lives.

Those other matters that are competing for our attention? Well, they must be given due respect as fundamental components of life, but where we may gain a measure of pragmatism is by checking to see if we have an unrealistic view of whether the realisation of such acquisition will really deliver the growth and fulfillment we think it will? Perhaps a little more patience may be required here.

If in any doubt, then meditate. The more we de-excite the nervous system, the more in tune we become with our deepest wisdom and, our most inspired level of thinking. If there is an obstacle to the path of inspiration, see if you can exercise some creativity to create an opening and move along the path.

But let us see if we can move away from the tendency to procrastinate, which generally tends to tie us up in knots. Instead, tune into yourself, fertilise the ground with courage and sew the seeds of love, health and progressive change with decisive action.

Speaking of which, its time for me to disembark this train and decisively choose which edits to go for on the new website and get them published!

Have a glorious Easter,

Team meditation