ACTIVELY WAITING...

“Why is patience important? Because it makes us pay attention.” –Paulo Coelho.
 
We are about one month away from the beginning of the 2016 track competition season, with the indoor season starting in January and am learning the power and importance of waiting. There are 4 days of waiting for Thanksgiving, 33 days until Christmas, and 39 days until the New Year. There are 116 days of waiting for World Indoor Championships in Portland, OR. There are 257 days of waiting until the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. With all these countdowns going on, it seems as if all we do is wait. You waited for me to post this blog (or not). I’m waiting for the new lotto picks to come out on Wednesday. Waiting is inevitable.
 
Waiting is tough. I can say I haven’t been a fan of it, but fortunately, the opportunity to practice at it is apparent and inescapable. It was in 2012, when coming up milliseconds short of securing my entry into the London Games, allowed me to see what I really wanted to do; run in the Olympic final. I now sit waiting on my chance to do so next year in Rio. However, you must know, that while waiting, I am not actually sitting around twiddling my thumbs, eating stacks of donuts to pass the time (maybe the donuts). Waiting is an active trait, and every day is a day closer to the dream.
 
Waiting is a constructive process that is not only uplifting, but is a vital component to setting the base of your future or desire. While waiting, I am training constantly, learning more and more about what I am waiting for, so that when it comes, I am more than ready to experience every bit of it. In running terms, patience is critical. With each stride, I lift one leg high, and wait until the optimal moment to strike back down to the ground. If I strike too early, I lose position in hip posture. If I strike too late, I lose out on maximum force. Waiting is a process of preparation.
 
It is in the wait that we grow. In the waiting room of life, we learn things about ourselves that we otherwise would have not discovered. The gift of waiting is that it gives us the ability to hope and expect, and the ability to learn and appreciate. The waiting periods of life are necessary growth windows for our dreams to take life. Wait on and press on with hope and expectation for the best that is yet to come. Hold on to your vision and accept that your life is in process, and acknowledge that no experience, good or bad, is ever wasted. “When each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day.” (Paulo Coelho)
 

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