Member-only story
The Pizza Analogy for Patience
It’s not easy to do, but you’ve gotta resist impulse and respect the process
Two song lyrics come to mind. And an analogy.
In “Between the Bars,” Elliott Smith refers to things that “won’t bend to your will.”
Then there’s the classic song — basically about patience and process — from Tom Petty:
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part
We — at least some of us — have a tendency to want to will things to happen. If you’re like me, you often want them to develop ahead of schedule.
A new job. A promising new relationship. A green light. The end of a global pandemic. All the things — big and small.
You can’t will anything to happen. And you probably shouldn’t try. It took me a long time to figure this out. When you let the process — the natural, even if unpredictable, order of things — play out, they often end up playing out (A) as they should and (B) in your favor. It’s even better if you’re able to remove worry and rumination from the equation.