The Secret Of Waiting - Grasshopper

It’s taken me the better part of my life to learn this one secret: Waiting.

 

Waiting is not patience. Patience is a concept; waiting is a strategy.

 

“Take the bull by the horns” and “Seize the Day” are the strategies of yesterday. Yes, they have their successful moments but too often they’re just a misuse of energy.

 

Waiting means to recognize you’re at a sticking point without using worn and prefabricated schemes to get unstuck. Once you notice your impasse, then it’s time to just wait for a solution to show up.

 

In baseball they have an expression for fielders: “Let the ball come to you.” Yes, there are times to charge the ball but most often, waiting for it to come to you is the smart play.

 

Men have been conditioned since childhood that they must know and know now. That’s why we don’t stop and ask directions. We just plow forward and expect results. Taking a breath and allowing you to seek help is waiting at work.

 

Try out waiting in low risk situations. Let’s pretend you’re doing a crossword puzzle and you come to a section where no answers are forthcoming. That is the time to wait. Waiting, in this case, may mean going on to other sections of the puzzle that are less puzzling and come back to the seemly unsolvable section later. Many times, out of the blue, answers start to come to you.

 

Dr. Dave Dobson offered this strategy when taking a test. He recommended that you read all the questions before you attempt answers. Your mind is then working on all the answers as you begin writing down yours.

 

The strategy that most of us use is to have nonstop chatter in our head when we come to a sticky wicket. When we fill our mind with noise, the illusive answers stay quiet. They only surface when we go deeper than the surface of thinking. That’s where waiting will take you.

 

Trust that there is a part of your mind that knows the answer and give it room to work. It works best when it’s free of constant, threadbare thinking. It will sew together answers from the magic cloth of waiting.

 

All the best,

John