“Impatience can cause wise people to do foolish things.”

— Janette Oke

I know. You want it now.

Actually, if you had your druthers, you’d have had it last week. Whatever “it” is. It’s going to make you happy. It’s going to relieve the burden. It’s going to take away the stress. It’s going to give you peace. It’s going to give you…fill in the blank.

So you want “it” now.

Impatience is not a happy thing. It’s an aching, frustrating, miserable thing. It’s the quickest way to make time slow down and in the nastiest way possible because it makes every clock tease and torment you. Every day, every week taunts you with “I won again!” and you feel increasingly disappointed as time seems to drag even slower.

Impatience makes you unhappy. It adds a burden. It gives you stress. And it does not allow peace. Instead, it gives you more of the miseries you’re hoping to escape.

The more you think about how slowly time is going, the longer it seems to take and the more impatient you become. Then time seems slower still, and the whole chicken-and-egg process gets worse. Before long, you’re just this side of tearing your hair out by the roots.

Stop.

Take a couple of deep breaths. Refocus. Understand that by choosing to focus on “hurry up” thoughts, you’re asking for more impatient feelings, which will only bring you more misery. And that’s a pretty huge waste of your precious energy.

Calm down.

Remember that time keeps ticking along at the same rate of speed, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, no matter how you feel about it. It’s like a river that keeps flowing. You toss a stick in it, and it will bob and bounce along with the water, steadily, continuously, winding its way to wherever it’s heading. Nothing makes it go faster. Nothing makes it go slower. But it keeps moving.

You have more control than you think.

Your feelings are a direct result of your thoughts, which you can control if you choose to do it. How you’re feeling is directly influenced by whatever you’re thinking. Immediately. Every time. Always.

Therefore, you are always able to control your feelings because you are in charge of what you allow yourself to think about.

You have a choice to make.

Do you want to feel even unhappier, more burdened and stressed? Or do you want to aim for that peace you think you can only feel when you get the coveted “it”?

You can have happiness now. You can have a lighter burden and less stress now. You can feel peaceful now. In this moment, this very moment that you’re standing in right now, accept all things about your situation. Accept that this is how things are, right here, right now.

That doesn’t mean you won’t fix it or it won’t change or improve. Just acknowledge that while that’s going on, you accept how it is now and on the way to “it.”

Never mind what’s missing.

Never mind what’s not right. Instead, be grateful for all that is. Think about the abundance of goodness around you. Think about what you have. Think about the blessings, what works, what’s right in your life, in your circumstances, and in your environment.

Because I can assure you, there is plenty, no matter how dire your circumstances might be. The very fact that you are able to read and understand my words is a blessing. And you have access to the internet so there are other blessings that allow for that.

When you spend your time focusing on the abundance and the positives in your life, it is impossible to be upset about what’s missing. You cannot feel the peace and gratitude of abundance at the same time as you’re feeling frustration and lack.

When you’re focused on abundance and gratitude, you will feel happiness. You will feel less burdened and less stressed. You will feel a beautiful sense of peace. It’ll be much easier for you to feel content and patient about waiting for “it.”

Don’t push the river.

Appreciate its beauty. Appreciate how it sparkles in the sun while it nurtures plants, fish and other little critters. Appreciate the way it twists and winds across the surface of the earth, not knowing where it’s going and not caring, meandering gently, not needing to rush and discover its destination because it knows it’s getting there anyway.

Don’t push the river. Be the river. And you will have your peace — now.

Spiritual Arts Mentor and Master Teacher, Liberty Forrest, guides you in discovering who you are, why you’re here, and how to follow that path.

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