When I was younger, I couldn’t sit still.
Sometimes that was a good thing and sometimes it wasn’t.
In college, I had a job about 6 miles from where I lived at the time.
I worked odd hours and the bus ran infrequently, especially on weekends.
And after work, I hated sitting at the bus stop waiting for the bus to come.
It wasn’t the safest place to hang around and wait.
So when I got particularly anxious, I would just say “f*** it”, and I’d start jogging home from stop to stop along the bus line.
If the bus came while I was running, then fine. I’d hop on and take it the rest of the way home.
More often than not, I’d start running and be in such a groove that the next thing I knew I was home.
That got me thinking about WAITING for things to happen in a job or in life and in business.
WAITING for things outside our control to change before doing something.
WAITING to see how things play out when rumors start flying about company layoffs.
By the time people get laid off and collect their severance they’ve been waiting for, no one else is hiring.
Worse yet, all that sitting around caused them to stop growing.
WAITING for retirement day to come – spending more time counting the days and weeks until the big day instead of using that time to grow and thrive.
WAITING for their divorce paperwork to clear so they “can start their new life fresh.”
WAITING for the blood tests to come back – standing pat worrying and WAITING instead of pushing forward with other parts of your life.
What can we do right now instead of WAITING for the bus?
Is there something more productive we can be doing with our time and energy instead of WAITING?
Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come,
or a plane to go or the mail to come,
or the rain to go or the phone to ring,
or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.
Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.
Excerpt from Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss
