Get On With It!

We have all been impatient. You wouldn’t be human otherwise. What makes this particular discussion poignant is the rate of impatience that we have seems to increase as we get older, forcing us to deal with life as it comes. Certainly by the time you are my age (45) you might be ready to just scream ‘get on with it!’ several times a day!

For me impatience stems from the unknown. I don’t do well in this zone. I like to know all the facts and then deal with whatever it is head on. I don’t think I’ve always been this way. I think in my teens and 20s I lingered longer in the ‘don’t tell me’ territory because otherwise I would have to deal with whatever it was, and I never felt I was ready to deal with anything!

I didn’t take issues head on. I thought time would help me make the right decision, or perhaps inaction was best because I was not ready for the consequences of making my own decisions—namely failing!

Funny how the world works sometimes. Boy did I learn the hard way. I know now that inaction IS action. Deciding whether to take on a new job, for example, or whether to end an intimate relationship actually creates the path you go down. We are creating and laying down the stones of our own path each and every moment of every day.

Do you believe that? I mean do you really? Even by deciding to ‘do nothing’ you are building and moulding that path right in front of you.

So, as the years have accumulated for me in this life time, with experience I have become a better decision maker. I spend less time in ‘don’t tell me because I don’t want to know’ area, and instead I stand stronger in my capability to deal with issues.

Hey! Actually I think that’s a huge part of my decision making. I am more confident in my ability to make a decision and deal with the consequence of also being wrong. I’m cool with letting myself off the hook if I’m wrong by apologizing when necessary.

You are probably thinking, ‘of course Gilda, isn’t it obvious?’ However it’s not obvious, and it can take years for some of us to discover that sweet spot of finding patience with ourselves, and also expressing our impatience with things that might bother or infuriate us. Where we would normally have let things go—and perhaps consequently sacrificing our own inner peace—we have replaced with putting ourselves first and dealing with any potential negative outcomes.

So, I say let’s all ‘get on with it’ already and start making better choices, which will build better roads for our journey through life. This isn’t a crowd pleasing sound off either. Truly believe in your own ability to create whatever road you want to go down. Use your impatience for intolerable behaviours in your life to build the right path for yourself. Let’s set a better example for our children by modelling self love and self care by not being afraid to decide what is best for us.

Put that 40s impatience to good use!