Will You Make It?

The title is something I ask myself every single day since I was 15 years old. It's been 8 years now. Looking back, it feels like it all passed in a blink of an eye. It really didn't though. In that blink of an eye, a whole journey of successes and failures, lessons and mistakes, love and hate, belief and disbelief, patience and impatience...You know, life, occurred during those 8 years. It's interesting to me how we can take time for granted. 'Life goes by very fast' is a common expression you'll hear, but, I wholeheartedly disagree with that. Time moves slow for those who care about it, who cherish it and utilize it wisely. I'm guilty of taking it for granted, I have done so plenty of times, hence why I have learned to value it so much in the past recent years of my life.

'Will you make it?' is something I ask myself when I look into my future and the goals I have set up in the field. This questioning happens everyday. When answers arise from my gut, one element is crucial to remember before opening that conversation: 'patience'.

Patience is a skill we must master. It is a wild horse that wants to run away without us, it is a horse we must tame for our own good, so that we are our lives' jockeys.

We can become desperate to attain things, being gullible to our impulses. Delayed gratification is the core of patience.

Being patient when we want to achieve, aspire and dream, is what keeps us grounded in reality. We are able to stay sat, and view things for what they really are. 'Am I actually making progress? If so, how much? Does it really matter how much? If no progress has been made, how can I get on track? Is it the track I'd like to run on?' Endless questions and endless answers that can be made, but with patience, we can delimit those, to a smaller set of Q's and A's, that can help us reach realistic conclusions in regards to our subjective measurement of progress in our lives.

There are many ways to practice patience. Nonetheless, practicing delayed gratification is the most important. When an impulse gets to you, question it, evaluate it, and then decide to take action. We, as human beings, are impulse-creating machines, it's all about mastering them, through the lens of patience, understanding, morality and love.

The same ocurrs when we have the impulse to speak in a heated conversation. It is hard to control the words that we decide to speak when we have so many impulses in our front-end. However, learning to be patient with the emotions, thoughts and decision-making, is key, to fundamentally, keep rowing our boat.

Today's article is short, different, and seems like it comes from my personal journal. It doesn't necessarily speak about ways to be productive. I decided to take this route to try something different. I wanted to express inner thoughts I've had, so you can read and decide if it's helpful for yourself or not.

Have a great rest of your week people, thanks for reading this week's article.

-Aritz.