I HATE WAITING! I hate waiting for people when you go to pick them up, I hate waiting for the bus when its not running on schedule, I hate waiting for people to make the first move, I hate waiting on long lines in target or anywhere for that matter, and I hate waiting in front of a stove to wait for food to cook and I often hate waiting for work to prove itself effective.

• “Can’t I just have it now?”
• “I worked long enough”
• “I worked hard enough”
• “I waited long enough”
• “This process has been repeated way too many times.”
• “Something happen already”

BUT, I hate waiting!

It doesn’t always feel nice, but guess what? The experience cannot be replaced with instant gratification. Instant gratification is a temporary fix and often wears off rather quickly; whereas waiting gives lessons you can carry with you throughout life and in the long run.

1. Endurance
   • How do you move past the challenges? How do you manage the good days? How do you manage the off days when temper tantrums ensue all day long, when a strong-willed child doesn’t want to move with the order of the day or participate in an activity.
   • There is so much power in enduring. Endurance creates a sphere of hope that bleakness is temporary and that there is an end goal to be had. Your reward: achievement and strength.
2. Understanding
   • Looking at everything in slow motion makes things a lot easier to understand. The days seem to go quick when you’re doing a lot, but slow down a bit and then you will see why things need to happen in a particular order, why breaks are necessary, why one set of tasks takes priority over another.
3. Patience
   • I’m learning to be patient with my son’s learning style. In that patience, I’m learning how to effectively help him to progress and evolve in his way of thinking. I can’t do that if I don’t wait for him to show me what his needs are.

Normel Smith

Wife to an amazing husband, mother to an exploring toddler and an MPA graduate aspiring to impact the world with encouragement in mothering and in social entrepreneurship.