There are times in life where we know what’s coming, but the timing is out of our control.
My wife and I are currently expecting our third child. Any day now, she’ll be here. And in the meanwhile, we get — i.e. have — to wait. Which can be frustrating at times.
One of the challenges of not knowing how long you’ll be waiting, is that it affects what you say yes and no to in the meanwhile. If something significant is going to happen at any moment, but you don’t know exactly when, you’re prone to be more hesitant to schedule too many things in that same time frame.
It also forces you to decide if and when you’re going to prepare. Do spend time now, even though there’s other things to be done? Or do you put it off, although you may get caught unprepared?
Maybe it’s a looming project, or a potential change in the law, or a new addition to the family. We all know that things in life don’t always happen on our timetable. Sometimes there’s uncertainty if they will ever happen, and other times the uncertainly is not about if, but when, they’ll take place.
In those moments, what do we do?
Here are a couple questions that are worth considering in these kind of situations.
- First, is this for sure going to happen? And if not for sure, how likely is it?
- Second, if it’s guaranteed or highly likely, what can I do now to get ready?
Because if it’s going to happen, and we can’t control the timing, at least we can get to work on the things we can control.
If we choose to be proactive, taking time to prepare for what will take place, even though we don’t know when, and then it takes longer than expected, at least we’re still ready. But what happens if we fail to prepare, and it happens earlier than we anticipated?
Waiting can be difficult. But if the timing is out of our control, the best thing thing to do is to make the most of the time that we do have — however long that ends up being.