dealing with impatience / episode 6
In this episode:
why worrying about your long-term goals is counter-productive
micro speed vs macro patience
how to close the gap to our long-term goals
Curb your impatience
I am a pretty impatient person - in both life and business - which can cause issues for me because I’m also highly ambitious and future-oriented. I’m always looking ahead, at the next big goal or milestone, feeling like I can never reach them as fast as I want.
The problem lies in the frustration which can hold me back from even making any progress towards my goals.
“I’m so far from achieving any of it, what’s the point of worrying or even doing anything about it right now?”
But what is all too easy to forget is that: what we do in the day-to-day is what determines our future.
By shifting our focus away from how far away we are from our goals and to what we can do or control today, we train ourselves to focus on actually taking action and not pointless overthinking and unhelpful impatience. We need to practice channeling our impatience and frustrated energy into something productive: the tasks that we can take action on, right now.
Micro speed vs macro patience
Micro speed and macro patience are 2 concepts that I first heard from Gary Vee (I’m a regular listener of his podcasts).
Macro patience is about being patient with yourself and understanding that progress and results take time. It’s about thinking about your journey in terms of years, not mere days or weeks, and not judging yourself so critically for the progress you’ve made in the short-term. On the other hand, micro speed is about taking action and being fast in the day-to-day. It’s about shifting your attention away from your big goals, from how far away you might be from them, to what you can do today to take action.
It’s not so different from learning a language, a new skill or an instrument. It might take you a few years to get to the level of proficiency that you want (unlike with business, people understand more widely that it takes time to improve), but the only way you’ll improve is through consistent, regular practice. It will take some time but all of your daily actions accumulate into something greater.
It doesn’t matter how slow you go
“It does not matter how slow you go as long as you don't stop.”
You are not competing with anyone else but yourself. You should not measure your progress against anyone else’s but your own. (More on comparison in episode 5.)
Celebrate your small wins and every single bit of progress. One day, you’ll look back and be amazed at how far you’ve come.
But for now, keep taking those baby steps, keep focusing on the things within your control today.
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0:09
Hello welcome back to episode 6. We are talking about dealing with impatience today and I can tell you that I am an extremely, extremely impatient person. I am always looking forward and I can never get to the future fast enough, which makes it really frustrating when it comes to business because I can never get to my goals fast enough and it feels like I'm not making any progress in the day-to-day.
So if you're always focused on long-term goals and focused on the future like I am and you're just frustrated that you're not getting there fast enough, this episode is for you. When I feel really preoccupied with where I want to be and I can feel the stark difference, the stark contrast, between where I am and where I want to be, it can be so frustrating that it actually stops me from doing my work and from moving forward because in my head for some reason I'm like: nothing I'm going to do is going to matter.
It's not going to make a difference because I'm so far from where I want to be, so what's the point, you know and I get deflated. But you can learn to deal with this impatience and managing it a little bit better by making a mindset shift.
1:19
So by focusing on the the day-to-day and focusing on what you can control today and in the short term and shifting your focus away from how far you are from where you want to be and just focusing on what you can do today, that will really help take your attention off the frustration that you're moving slower than you would like.
The only thing that we have control over is the present, is what we do in this very moment in this single second today and this is something that Gary Vee talks about quite a bit which really resonates with me because it reminds me to be present and to focus on what I can actually control in the present moment.
So he talks about micro speed versus macro patience. It's being patient in the long term, understand that progress takes time, things don't happen overnight. So not judging yourself so harshly for the progress you've made over the past few months, being patient in the long term and thinking of your business in terms of years but in the micro, in the day-to-day, in the weeks, in the seconds even, you're being productive and you're being fast and you're taking action.
2:27
And to paraphrase something that he has said before: don't worry about your years, while wasting your days. We need to change the way we think about our goals and understand that the way we spend our days affects our years.
What we do today, what we do this week, has a direct impact and just because that gap is too big for us to see doesn't mean that we're not making progress towards our bigger goals.
And our days and our months and our years are more closely connected than we think or we realise and we just forget that and that's why when building habits it tends to be hard because we're just judging our progress in the long term without really making impactful actions and steps towards those goals in the day to day.
So the thing that works for me to help me manage my impatience because I am a very, very impatient person is to set smaller goals to work towards. Those bigger goals always seem out of reach but when I break them up into smaller goals that I can actually tackle each month and each week and each day that definitely helps me shift my attention and my focus back to the tasks that I can actively control.
And this relates back to episode 4 where I talked about identifying your one thing that one task that will help you move the needle forward and it really relates to this because it's all about changing your mindset to focus on the present moment and what you can control, rather than sitting there and wasting time feeling frustrated and annoyed at yourself that you're not making as much progress as you would like; you're not moving as fast as you like.
3:55
But sitting there and worrying and being frustrated isn't going to get you any closer so take a step back, reframe and try to remember that how you spend your days, how you spend your weeks and your months will directly influence how much progress you make towards those longer goals that you think are so far away.
And I say that with love because I've been there and I still feel very frustrated all the time but I know that frustration is not helping me make any progress. So I just need to shift my attention, I need to journal and reflect and get back to what I can do today to bring me closer to my goals.
So this is your reminder to have patience in the long term, to remember that things take time and to focus your effort and attention to what you can do in the short term which will bring you closer to your long-term goals.
4:43
Try not to focus on what's going wrong, how slow things are moving, how fast other people are moving, focus on yourself and focus on what you can do right now to get you closer to where you want to be. Channel that energy and that frustration into something more productive that will actually move you forward but have the self-awareness to take a break if you need to and I promise it doesn't help to sit there and to dwell on the things that are wrong.
Things take time; these things take time. There's nothing wrong with you so take a deep breath, be easy on yourself and turn your attention to what you can do today and as Confucius apparently says (who knows with these quotes anymore): “It does not matter how slow you go as long as you don't stop.”
And that's not to say you need to keep working and keep hustling and never take a break but I want you to interpret that as it doesn't matter how slow your progress is, focus on the fact that you are making progress and celebrate your small wins. It starts with small steps and those little tiny baby steps will add up to something so much greater and to throw in one of my own paraphrased jumbled quotes: Climbing that mountain is a series of small steps: putting one foot in front of the other.
And one more for last measure: slow progress is better than no progress at all.
So take it easy. Breathe and take that first baby step. Thank you so much for listening to this episode, I hope this reminder was helpful and I will see you next week for a q&a.
Bye!
