But Not Yet
I was chatting with a close friend yesterday while I waited for my flight to take off. It was an innocent chat, but then, out of nowhere, my friend shared something I instantly knew would be today’s post. He was discussing a mutual friend. Our mutual friend is a fantastic guy with a heart of gold and excellent at his craft. He’s most certainly on a path to success in his professional and personal endeavors. The conversation revolved around how our common friend has a ton of big, awesome goals. One problem: He wants to achieve them all right now. Unfortunately, his urgency, impatience, and lack of focus will completely sabotage most, if not all, of these big goals. My friend on the other end of the phone concluded this little gem: “We can have almost anything we want in life, but not yet.”
Short, punchy, profound, and so very true! Almost everything in life is possible, but not if we try to take shortcuts to get there….and not if we try to do them all at once. I’ll share a few real-life examples.
The first is one of my friends from college. He’s a smart dude with a healthy motor. Coming out of college, he believed he deserved to quickly achieve xyz title in his industry. Why? Because he was better than most people, and he deserved it. While I was 100% confident he could (and would) eventually get there, his approach and mindset concerned me. I encouraged him to simply do the work, pay his dues, and methodically work his way to where he wanted to be. He could get exactly what he was looking for, but not yet. Nope. He wanted what he wanted, and he wanted it now. In his pursuit of quick status (and the money that would accompany it), he frequently job-hopped, burned bridges, and greedily played the ladder-climbing game. Fast forward 20 years, and his career plateaued far lower than his original vision. So sad…..and so avoidable.
My second example is a friend with several simultaneous and conflicting wants. On one hand, he desperately wants to change careers and pursue work that matters. He also wants to buy a house. He also wants to upgrade his car. All three of these aspirations are possible, but not yet. If he prioritized them and focused on one at a time, he could achieve all three. However, in his impatience and haste, he’s creating a scenario where he’ll have none of them. I hope he alters his path, but I foresee a brutal end to this hasty endeavor. So sad…..and so avoidable.
We can have almost anything we want in life, but not yet. We need to focus on what’s most important, have discipline, stay persistent, and be patient. When we do those things, we’ll absolutely get to where we’re trying to go.
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