Wait until
you realise you’re already there!
Wherever you are in your journey through this thing called life, can you recall a time when someone advised you to WAIT UNTIL..?
It could have been at that life-changing/transcending time of 17 to 18 years, “wait until”…
Maybe (if you drive) “Wait until you get your license”.
Maybe you’re an academic, and it was “wait until you get to university” or “wait until you graduate”.
Possibly, you heard “wait until you’re married”.
You might have heard “wait until you’re older” by an elder or “wait until you’re 40” (if you’re 30)etc. Or, to yourself, “Wait until I get on my feet. I’ll show them”.
It’s all contextual to the relevant, and maybe I’m provoking a thought, triggering an emotion, or keeping you curious about where this is going?
In my experience, “wait until” has had more negative connotations than positive, so if you hear the words “wait until”, then you’re probably being spoken to by an elder, a wiser, or someone who had a “lived experience” to share that was incredibly positive.
Let me unpack this a little more, peel the proverbial onion and expose the root of this advice.
You may have heard the phrase “the grass is greener on the other side” or fallen into a marketing ploy that delivered FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), otherwise known as scarcity. In other ways, this phrase can be interpreted that people are verbally, physically, or emotionally telling you what to be sceptical of or manipulative in their words so you can follow their malevolent advice.
In the beginning, I said, “wherever you are in your journey,”. My reminder for you is that it is YOUR journey, and the navigation is usually organised with the next step. Well, what if I told you, you are the step. You’re not the next step. You’re not the step before because you abandoned that with the confidence you had to take the next step.
For a moment, give yourself a “matrix” style bullet in motion pause (you would need to have seen the movie to understand. I’m sorry if you haven’t). You’re now present. You do not need to be anywhere else because you are where you belong.
The example above is similar to the “pursuit of happiness”, and my research took me to some outstanding work by a Harvard Psychologist named Susan David and the hypothesis that we as a society have an unhealthy relationship with the obsession for happiness.
This fantastic lady speaks to us about our emotional agility, but for me, it triggered an awareness that was suppressed for many years—the awareness of stillness. The now is all we have and what we are. In the now is all we will ever have.
To bring this home, land the plane, summerise and conclude, you don’t need to concern yourself about the “until”. Wait for nothing because it’s about how you deal with the now.
Live immediately and enjoy your journey.
