So much time in life is spent waiting. Waiting for the magical day we dream up in our imaginations. Waiting for our dreams to come true. Waiting for our achievements to materialize, for our hard work to pay off.
We wait and we wait, and we get frustrated when that day does not come exactly when we want it to. We allow ourselves to get tangled up in confusion and disappointment when our vision is taking too long to become our reality.
We live in a world in which instant gratification has become the norm… nothing is worth waiting for when we can acquire the next best thing in an instant.
We forgo true happiness, replacing it with a constant need for more, which we find from inorganic sources — immersed in the lives of others via social media, fantasizing over things we do not have, wishing for things we do not need.
We ignore the yearnings of our hearts because we are too afraid of what true patience with life will really bring us.
Instead of chasing after those dreams and goals, we become stagnant. They seem too far away so we allow ourselves to settle for mediocrity.
But, what if we held on for one more day? What if we let the world wear us down to the core, testing us with challenge after challenge, failure after failure, with the hope that one day something will click and the weight of the world will lift from our shoulders and our dreams and goals and passions will begin to surface into the realms of reality?
It’s possible. It is so possible!
Yes, it might hurt at times. We will get knocked down, feel defeated.
But the day those broken puzzle pieces begin to fit together — that day is worth the wait. It is beyond worth the wait. Because all of a sudden we begin to feel the true happiness we’ve been searching for this whole time. The one we thought didn’t really exist… the one people talk about and dream about, and write books and quotes about.
We have the power to manifest such happiness, but it starts with two things: patience and perseverance. Because nothing really worth having, nothing worth feeling, comes instantaneously.
I’ve been there. I’ve been in that dark moment, at what I thought was the end of my capacity to hang on. I’ve felt myself falling off the ledge of life, so ready to give up and give in and surrender to the forces trying to bring me down.
But I held on. I kept my eyes open, my heart centered on where I knew I could go — on that goal, that dream. It seemed further away than ever but my gaze did not waver.
And let me tell you, through it all I’ve come out with not only that goal accomplished and that dream now my reality, but also as a completely different person. As someone the old me would not recognize. Someone who is completely and utterly confidant in herself, in her place in life. Someone who is not afraid to keep dreaming bigger and scarier dreams each day, but who can also appreciate the beauty of this special moment.
It’s a tough balance to find but it is so beyond worth it. I want you to find it too.
Evan Petschke 