This past year, I had set deadlines for my dreams, my goals and my plans; and most of them did not go as I had planned. I was devastated. The pressure I had put on myself to make things happen at a certain time made me feel suffocated. It made me question my self-worth to the point where I started believing that maybe I did not deserve those things. I was anxious. Why? Was it because the things that I had planned did not happen as I had planned them? No. It was because I was rushing everything; hoping for them to happen immediately, right from the time I started dreaming about them. What I failed to understand then is that accomplishing things take time, as most beautiful things do.

I used to work for what I strived for, and at the same time I used to blame myself for not being able to accomplish it quickly enough. Sometimes, I got even more obsessed with the idea of doing everything, and doing it all “NOW”. I hoped for everything to turn out in my favour. Now I realize that I definitely lacked patience then and that is what made me suffer.

What I missed then is that there is a process to everything. We go through a journey while pursuing our dreams. I failed to embrace the small successes that I was achieving every day to reach one step closer to my dreams. I failed to respect the process. I failed to trust the timing of life. I failed to acknowledge that there are certain pleasures in life that one should never rush through.

Patience is a blessing, they say. Great things happen to people who are patient. I have started to believe that it is something we should all realize. Patience is a virtue that everybody must possess. Being patient can transform our overall life experiences. As long as we put in the effort, our dreams are valid. Even a little effort that we put in on a daily basis does matter. The value of our dream does not diminish if it does not happen in the time that we anticipate it to happen. Waiting is not the problem; it’s about how we deal with it. Life is not something to be rushed through. Life should be lived, life should be celebrated.