Have you ever applied for a job and just waited? Messaged your crush and just waited? Sent an important email and just waited? If you have, welcome to the waiting game. Chances are everyone has played the game. And if you are anything like the rest of the world, the waiting game sucks. The level of anxiety, insecurity, and vulnerability that encompasses your entire existence as you wait is literally death reincarnated. All you want is for everything to work out, for your desires to be answered. And yet there is a sense of fear that everything is going to go down in flames. So how do you navigate the waiting game? How do come out victorious?
It all begins with your perception. As the saying goes, perception is key.
The waiting game is simply a mind game.
Before you can actually conquer the waiting game, you must understand one fundamental principle. What is going to happen will happen. Now, you may believe in the universe conspiring to bring forth a positive result or that you can change the future by simply doing some chant. And maybe you are right. But even if you are right, that still doesn’t change the fact that what is going to happen, will happen. What this means is that by the very fact that you are alive, you are experiencing life. Life consists of interactions and events. These interactions and events are things that happen to you, there is nothing you can do to change the influx of events and interactions that is your life.
The waiting game is a mind game and with mind games, how you view the situation is key. If you go into a situation with the right attitude no matter the outcome, you will come out victorious. Winning is not necessarily getting the result you initially wanted. Winning is about keeping a positive outlook. So to conquer the waiting game you must remember that as much as you want a positive response, these things are out of your control. In the mean time, take ownership of what is in your control. I know all this sounds cliché and it is, but it really is that simple. If the waiting game is a mind game then the only way to conquer it is to expand the mind and look at the situation from a different point of view.
For me, when I put myself out there and I am waiting for a response, I own up to my emotion. I recognize that I am likely being dramatic and insecure about the situation. Instead of beating myself up, I reaffirm to myself that everything will be good, no matter the outcome. I begin to look at the situation differently and tell a different story. Thus, I am not broken by the situation. This technique isn’t easy because if you are insecure and fearful it is hard to tell yourself to be confident. However, no one knows yourself better than you. You know when you are being unreasonable. If you don’t know how you react to situations than you should get to know your reactions because if you know how you react, you can recognize whether your response to the situation is warranted.
So while the waiting games sucks, don’t fail victim to it. When you’ve put yourself out there for the world to judge, rise up to the situation. As the young people say, take the L if it comes your way. More importantly, don’t let the fear of waiting (i.e., failure) prevent you from putting yourself out there. Keeping taking bold chances and eventually, the wait will stop.
Yours truly,
Modernitybylc
modernitybylc 