By: Shenille Lewis
Have you ever been told by someone when you’re excited, anxious or eager about the future that:
“Nothing ever happens before it’s time”
But wait, how can this be true when you’re told you have to work hard and maximize productivity?
That slacking gets you nowhere and it’s up to you to make things happen?
Well it’s true, for one simple reason:
When you’ve grown into the person you need to be, that event, moment or growth will take place.
Take for example, being independent.
Let’s say you’re 17, and applying to University. You’re contemplating staying in your hometown, but you also want to move away and be more independent. But something doesn’t feel right, you don’t feel ready to move away, so you stay closer to home.
After graduation, you take a job opportunity in another province, excited to finally move away from home and feeling much more ready to be independent.
Part of the reason you were initially hesitant to move is because you weren’t equipped with the experience you needed to become independent.
It was not your time to move out and obtain that level of independence, so instead it happened when the time was right.
This feeling we have where we feel stuck where we are. Our end goals aren’t out of reach, but they aren’t easy to achieve either. Every time we take one step forward we take two steps back…
These feelings we have of being unable to progress in our journeys are because we’re hoping to do something before it’s time.
Our mindset might be there, but the relevant experience is not.
Each time we grow, accomplish a goal or make significant progress in our life – it happens after we’ve had important experiences.
These experiences could be a minor lesson that provides a brief moment of clarity allowing us to prepare our goals more thoroughly, or it could be a major life lesson, bestowing more knowledge to help us realize the goals we’ve made.
It could even be meeting someone who changes our perspective and helps us realize the potential we have to achieve our wildest dreams.
The bottom line is: we need to give ourselves time and space to have these experiences.
We need to be patient and trust in the process.
If we’ve made the required steps and we’re still determined, we will get there in due time.
This time we may need, although inconvenient, is necessary to help us in our journeys, with the fast pace of the world, sometimes taking the time to give ourselves grace and room to grow is vital.
So, the next time you feel as though your progress is stunted, or you’re stuck in the same place, think about that experience around the corner that could help you uncover your full potential.
