I’ve made a self-discovery:

I struggle with patience.

I don’t mean the every day patience of waiting in line or sitting while my daughter uses the bathroom – for the fourth time in ten minutes.

I’m actually pretty good with that.

I mean the long-term life waiting. The uncertainty of the future. The unknowing of how things will resolve.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know I’ve been working on letting go of control and believing and hoping for the things I want. I believe wholeheartedly in the power of positive thinking and prayer, and I turn to both frequently throughout the day. I also have done quite a bit of work on writing down my goals and making sure I have a crystal clear vision of what I want in my relationships, family and business.

About one hour ago I realized the missing piece – patience.

I was listening to an episode of MarieTV on YouTube while out walking. She was interviewing Gabby Bernstein, a life coach and best selling author (both of these women are rock stars and are unbelievably inspiring!). The episode was about manifesting, and I highly recommend listening or watching the next time you have 13 minutes to spare. She went over her four part guide for manifesting what you want in your life. I’ll give you a really quick recap:

1) Be very clear on exactly what you want. As I mentioned, I actually did some work through Marie’s B-school earlier this year on short term and long term goals, so this has gotten more focused for me.

2) Remove limiting beliefs that may be keeping you from what you want. I have learned a lot about my own limiting beliefs over the past 15 years, and luckily can spot them pretty quickly when they wiggle back into my subconscious. That doesn’t mean they are always easy to remove, but I can at least recognize them and help usher them out the door.

3) Know that the Universe is working to bring all good things into your life. As Gabby says, “The Universe has your back.”

4) Have patience.

Umm….what? I’m supposed to do all of those things and THEN have patience?

Oh.

Gabby then read this quote from A Course in Miracles:

“Those who are certain of the outcome can afford to wait, and wait without anxiety.”

Wow. I literally stopped on the sidewalk to text that to myself so I wouldn’t forget. (Yes, I text myself A LOT.)

I realized on my walk home I may THINK I’m being patient, but I’m really not because I’m trying to plan the date that all of my manifesting will occur.

Ok, Universe, I trust you to bring us another baby. I would like that by September so our kids are exactly three years apart, please.

Ok, God, I totally believe you have a house ready for us. Our lease is up June 1 so I’ll need that house before then, mmm k?

Maybe I haven’t been as patient as I thought.

It can be hard waiting for something that you really want, especially when it feels you have been waiting forever. Our job isn’t to know exactly how things are going to happen. We just need to believe they will happen, and then we need to sit back and enjoy life until it does. We can’t say we are being patient and then be all upset or angry about it. The quote says “wait without anxiety”. We need to let the waiting times be times of peace and enjoyment of the present moment.

That can only happen when we have rock solid belief that what we want is coming to us.

It feels kind of freeing to think about not planning every single little possible future event. Wanna give it a try?