Waiting, it is a part of life. We wait every single day and sometimes we do not even realize how much time goes by in our day waiting. We wait for the water to heat up in the shower, we wait for the coffee maker to drip the final drop, we wait for our kids to get ready so we can head on out and start our day. We wait at traffic lights, stop signs, in the dreaded school drop off line or for the school bus to come. We wait in so many aspects of our life that we do not pay much attention to it until we are running late. Then the wait is the only thing we focus on.
What We Wait For
We seem to be always waiting. Mostly we think of things that are out of our control. We cannot control the traffic, the person calling, the email we await for so we are able to be very vocal about our wait experience. We update our status on Twitter and Facebook to rally the troops as it makes the wait feel less and even more tolerable when we feel we have others around us. There are other things that are out of our control that we are vocal about generally once they are over or are a recurring wait. Women are quite open about their hours in labor and of course as a fan of a team we all wait year after year to be crowned the best of the best. We put so much energy into the waiting that it serves as a distraction to the many other things we shy away from talking about.
Waiting for Acceptance
Acceptance is what we wait for in business. As a blogger, we write and write and wait for the day that we get the big retweet or the comment that makes us flying high. We are so proud of that and seek ways to create the next best article to be put on the popularity map. We feel accepted as we are in the big leagues … we were retweeted and damit, that popularity map is that feeling of wow, this happened to me and now what can I do with it? The internal pressure of having to top that article, create the next best thing that people flock to as we know the 15 minutes of fame does not really exist in social media. It is more like a few seconds in the Twitter stream where people retweet (mostly they retweet because someone they like did and they do it out of loyalty). We have achieved that small piece of acceptance but that popularity/acceptance in social media still leaves us waiting. Or is it better said, wondering what we can really show them that will lead to more acceptance.
Who We Accept
We immediately accept the a-listers, the authors, the big fat talkers that people flock to in drones. We, as fans of a team loathe those that jump on the bandwagon (as where were you when we sucked) but yet in social media it is a lot of bandwagon. Have we ever thought about that? Probably not as online with some platforms we can friend/connect without ever having to do anything more than click a button. An anonymous but yet visible Twitter friend. Such an achievement but yet not so much. If we were watching “our” game and a new person walked in and was as verbose as people on Twitter or the comments in a blog would we never ever, ever want to be their friend? However, in social media when we hear a lot about them, we cannot wait to be their friend.
What We Are Really Waiting For?
We are waiting for the moment(s) when we are sharing the stage with the folks we feel we can/should be. Some we feel are better than us because they garner the popularity and anything they do is golden. Suddenly we forget about what we have to offer. We rely upon others to give us that pat on the back or as I like to say “that football slat on the ass” to show that we did good. The reality is that we do good constantly but we never acknowledge it until we are given props for it. If we were never given props would we write more or would we falter and give up? We wait for that something and what happens when that something comes? When that something for us is achieved, generally acceptance, is it that climatic? Will it push us to do more of what we knew we could do or dreamed of doing or make us wait for more acceptance before we write the ebook, launch a new product, etc?
Will It Ever Come?
Will the acceptance we are seeking before we really put ourselves out there with the vlog, ebook, guest post on an a-lister blog, etc ever come? Sometimes yes but too many times no. We make the excuses that we want more friends/followers, we want to build our reputation, our authority as once we do that, then we can take the next step. We never think that what we have cooking may help to build the authority and acceptance we want to achieve. The risk of taking that leap and that no-one would pay attention is so great that we prevent ourselves from taking action. No-one wants to put all their time and effort into something that is going to bomb. Our fears and inhibitions come to the forefront as what if no-one reads, watches or buys? What if people make fun of it and say it is so bad that we should not quit our day job? We go there first before thinking that it will be a success and people will be looking for more from us. We play it out in our head over and over and while we are doing that, we are waiting. Waiting for a moment that just may never come … until we stop waiting and start doing.
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