S01 Ep30: When You're (Impatiently) Waiting for Your Dreams to Come True!

EntrepreneurshipSelf-Improvement

Jun 4

Written By Melissa Wesner

Are you the person who wants to see results as soon as you put forth action? Have you found yourself becoming increasingly frustrated or impatient the closer that you get to achieving your big goals? If that’s you, this is the episode for you!
In this episode, you’ll hear:
• Sage reminders about waiting as a real part of the proces
• Things I’m doing while I (impatiently) wait and continue to show up consistently
• Summer updates & resources that you can utilize!
This is episode 30! Thank so much for joining us this year as we launched the Dreaming & Doing podcast! We look forward to catching up with you soon!
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Starting Therapy Podcast: https://bit.ly/4aldcH5
Fill out this interest form, so you can be the first to know about future retreats: https://bit.ly/49ZB16Q
Read about the Greater Baltimore Clinician Community Membership that’s opening up soon! Email melissa at melissa@lifespringcounseling.net to get on the waitlist: https://bit.ly/3UhFhcd
Seasoned Clinicians Peer Consultation Group with Melissa's team: https://bit.ly/4dfg7DD
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (00:21)
Welcome back to the Dreaming and Doing podcast. Can you believe it? Today is episode number 30. We launched this podcast at the start of January, 2024, and we've already done 30 episodes. As you might have already noticed, some of the topics that we've been covering so far reflect my own areas of interest, people I think are doing really cool work, things that I see going on with people that I work with.
and some things that I'm experiencing personally as well. Today's episode is all about impatience showing up as you're waiting and continuing to work diligently for your dreams to come true. One of the things that I've learned about myself over the past two years is that I am incredibly impatient. I'm not impatient with people, but I am
absolutely impatient when it comes to task completion and or the achievement of a goal. If I put forth effort, I want to see immediate results. If you're listening saying, yep, that's me too, send me a message or an email to let me know. So I know that I'm not the only one out here working diligently towards big dreams and also getting impatient about it.
Today, I'll be sharing some sage reminders, personal stories that you might just relate to, and some things that I'm trying to do while waiting and working diligently towards my big dreams. Let's start with some sage advice. You've likely heard some of the following sayings. The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit. Meaning,
have patience. Waiting is part of the process. And it's a reminder that it's important to have realistic expectations. It's not realistic to think that you can plant a seed and immediately see the fruit. And this is a good reminder because I recently saw an image on social media showing a little child with a magnifying glass inspecting the ground with a caption that said,
me checking on the seeds I just planted. Is that anyone else? Because I saved that image to my phone because that image and caption describes me and how I can sometimes show up. This is me when I decide to put forth effort. I am immediately ready to see the results of my efforts.
You can imagine just how painful things like going to the gym are for me. I want to go to the gym one time and feel rewarded for that very hard effort. In fact, back in high school, some friends of mine and I were preparing to go to senior week. You know, that week when all the graduating seniors go to the beach? My friends and I decided that we needed to get in shape for senior week. So we decided to do just that.
exactly one week before senior week. Yep, one week before we decided that we're going to get in shape and so we decided to go to an aerobics class and I'm pretty sure it was just one class. So you can imagine how that turned out for us and I think we also knew how that was going to turn out too. But tell me I'm not the only one. You put forth effort, it feels like a big deal.
And then you're like, man, why not seeing the results that I want to see just yet. There's another quote you may have heard of. It says the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now on one hand, that quote is kind of motivating, right? It's like, you can do it now. Take action now. Now is the next best time to plant that seed.
And also, my brain goes to 20 years ago? 20 years of waiting? That's a long time for someone who is as impatient as I am. It's only been the past two years that I've come to realize just how impatient I am. Life's been lifing, and during that time,
I utilized my own supports and that was the one thing that has been getting reflected back to me. I am the person who will try to take control to improve my circumstances, but realizing that not everything is in my control has been a really tough ongoing lesson to learn. Needing to accept that it will take time for my consistent efforts to pay off has also
been really tough. So rather than simply do the things that I would normally do, which is go hard, work more, take action in order to take control, I've been trying to approach things a little differently because as they say, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. So,
Here are some things that I've been trying out in this season of life where I'm feeling a little impatient. You are welcome to try these things for yourself as well or to use this as an opportunity to remember the actions that you have found helpful for you too when you're in a season like this one. So here are six things that I'm doing while waiting but also still
working consistently and impatiently as I pursue my big dreams. One, I've been walking every single morning. While I'm not a fan of exercise, as you might have guessed, I have realized that walking allows me to process, get new ideas, elevate my mood, and also elevate my thoughts.
When we're in a space of impatience, our mood and our thoughts can be a little negative, cynical, or grumbly. Walking lets my brain ventilate and it shifts my thoughts. Walking in the morning is a symbolic gesture that sends me the message that I'm prioritizing myself and that I'm giving myself the best of myself. I'm not waiting to walk until I have only fumes left in my tank because...
If I do, it just might not happen. And two, I've been journaling. Back in high school, I used to love journaling, but for years now, I've been out of the habit and I never felt the pull to get started again. One day, I decided to put my thoughts on paper, even if it meant nothing more than writing bullet points. It gets the mind trash out of my head and onto the paper.
And it's a space where I can tap into my dreams and write them down too. Three, I've been reading first thing in the morning. For a while, I just could not read a paper book. My brain felt so very full after an entire day's work. I just couldn't. I would find myself staring at the pages or not even knowing what I just read.
and having to read and reread and still I just couldn't. I didn't have the capacity. And then I started listening to audio books while walking. And now I'm in a rhythm of reading first thing in the morning when my brain is fresh. So you can find me reading anything from business books to spiritual slash personal development books first thing in the morning before my walk. And for
I've been working on myself. Whether I'm journaling, brain spotting, reading, or walking, I'm focusing on working on myself because our stuff shows up when life -lifes and when we get impatient. These have been my ways of checking in with myself, reflecting, and getting my thoughts and energy where they need to be. This has been a season of learning about myself and doing the work.
After all, as a therapist, that's exactly what we would encourage our clients to do, to do the work. And I need to model that. And five, I'm focusing on my primary goals and taking things off my plate. Currently, anything that's not a part of my main goal is not something I'm pursuing or entertaining. And.
I'm also reducing and taking things off my plate, including some things that I absolutely love. But I'm taking things off my plate so I have more breathing room, more spaciousness, and eventually more room to be creative. I've taken a few new steps recently and I'm already feeling relief, even though some of these transitions haven't even happened yet.
And even though it's still early on, I'm noticing shifts in my ability to dream about things that I haven't been dreaming about in a really long.
And lastly, I'm taking a break from coaching and consulting programs. I'm a really big learner, so historically I've spent a lot of time, energy, and money pursuing my own education. Right now though, I'm taking a break because I don't want to be in environments where I feel like I need to do, do, do, because that's what many of these programs are for, taking action. And because
I don't want to be in a position of feeling pressured to quote unquote make the most of my investment. In this season, I am trying to prioritize, get focused, and make sure I have time to rest. These are the things that I'm trying to do to stay focused on my goals, not overloading myself as is my tendency. And these are things that I'm actively doing to look at myself, be curious about myself,
and learned about myself and some of my responses to life showing up. If you've also been noticing impatience creeping in as you wait and work towards your goals, I'd love to hear about the steps you've been taking to navigate that too. And since this is episode 30, and because I'm advocating for rest and modeling behavior, I'm also announcing plans to take a break from podcasting over the summer.
If you're new to the podcast or if you've missed a few episodes, this will be a great time for you to catch up on previous episodes. If you've been listening but haven't actively been using some of the resources that we've been mentioning in the show notes, this is a great time to check those out. You can find a free Dreaming and Doing journal prompt to help you tap into your big dreams. So if you wanna give journaling a go, this is a great and fun exercise that I hope will help you feel more expansive.
You can also find free burnout prevention plans, a free private podcast series about starting therapy, and a bunch of other resources too. So be sure to check them out. Over the summer, my plan is to stay home. I don't wanna go anywhere. I don't wanna do any traveling. I just want to stay home. I wanna enjoy grilling and gardening and spending time with people I wanna spend time with.
I will also be batch recording new episodes with some really great people that you have yet to meet. And I think that you're really going to love some of the new topics that we're going to be covering. As I wind down for the summer season, I hope that you too will give yourself and your body whatever it's needing right now. You can find me back here in September on the Dreaming and Doing podcast. Thank you so much for joining with me on these first 30 episodes.
I'm going to be looking forward to catching up with you in September.