Authentic August – Day 22 (26 days ’til 28)
Patience is the key to peace.
I’ve been in a slight frazzle lately what with the excitement of the 7-Day YouTube Influence Challenge as well as from my goal to simplify my life over the next month or so. For whatever reason, the hustle and grind of it all makes me anxious and impatient. I don’t know if you get like this too, but when I start strategizing and dreaming up a dope future for myself, it’s like I get TOO excited and I just WANT IT NOW! In other words, when I gain momentum, I get impatient.
Another enemy I’m fighting in this battle for more patience is comparison. Of course I know I shouldn’t compare myself to others, but that’s much easier said than done, especially because I’ve been comparing myself to others my whole life. My shadow side is my pride. And I’ve spent a lot of my youth feeling better than others, and even after I became aware that I was doing that, it’s still a daily struggle. And you can’t feel better than others, you can’t boost your ego, unless you’re comparing yourself to people. And now that I’m about to turn 28 just 26 days from now, I’ve been comparing myself to other friends that are a similar age.
In a lot of ways I feel behind. And I feel like I need to “catch up.” So… I’m impatient. Which makes me want to hustle harder! But then that’s kind of a vicious cycle. Because as I said earlier, the hustle and momentum creates more impatience for me.
So whenever I get super impatient like this, I just need to take a breathe and slow it down. And more practically, I can get my mindset right by watching a bunch of Gary Vaynerchuk videos! He’s always talking about how even in your twenties you’re still a baby. That at 28, I still have 60 years of executing left. And that the reason we get so impatient is because we care about what other people think about us, and because we’re comparing ourselves to others.
He even talks about how it’s a smart decision to move back home with your parents and hustle hard for your dreams there because you’ll save a bunch of money. And that’s exactly what I did. I’m not sure I made the decision consciously, but now that I’m here, I really do see it as one of the necessary steps on my way to bigger things. Scaling down to scale up. Simplifying.
So life is exactly how it’s supposed to be right now. I get that. I just want to internalize that more and more each day. People say “Go Big or Go Home,” but I think what I’m doing is “Going Big by Going Home!” Lol!
Anyway, thanks for reading/tuning in. I’ll talk more about patience over the next few days; I feel I didn’t do it justice. This felt more like a stream of consciousness type post, but I want to really think this through a bit more so that the next time I feel impatient, I can revisit whatever strategy/mindset hack I come with haha! Enjoy your Saturday night!
With LOVE,
Q.