“The secret of losing weight is patience.” ― Jane Fonda
The other day i was uploading some files to my member site and it was taking a lot longer than I thought it should take.
And I was getting really impatient.
It had been a long day, with a lot of time spent in front of the computer.
I was tired and I just wanted to be DONE for the night.
I was sitting in front of my laptop, staring at the status bar...
85% 88%
"OMG...come onnnn." 93%
95%
"Ok, we're getting there." 96..97...98...99%
❌ There was an error processing your file.
"NOOOOOO! you've got to be kidding me!" (this is the G rated version of what I actually said 🤬🤬🤬).
So, I uploaded the file again...eyes still glued to the status bar...trying to will it to move faster with my mind (surprise, it didn't work).
96..97...98...99% ❌ There was an error processing your file.
"UGHHHHHH! @#$%@#*$!!!"
"It must be the stupid internet!"
So, I reset the router and the modem.
No change.
"It must be the stupid website!"
So, I logged out and back in again.
No change.
"It must be this stupid laptop!"
So, I restarted the computer.
No change.
After uttering way more expletives than I'd like to admit, I finally realized that the issue was that I was trying to upload a file that was larger than the allowed limit.
So, I re-rendered the video at a lower quality and starting the upload process again.
This time, it transferred with no issues.
"Well, that was silly." 🤦🏼♀️
Now I know that this story isn't very interesting but I also know that it isn't that very uncommon and it got me thinking about patience, or more appropriately the lack of it.
I remember when I was in highschool.
I was a huge music fan and it was kind of a personal mission to find and collect music of all genres, from artists both new and old, obscure and chart topping.
And I would do this by downloading mp3s off the internet.
Yes...I pirated music.
I was 16 and there are much worse things I could have been doing at that age...so I'm not apologizing. 🤷🏼♀️
I used a program called Soulseek (a peer-to-peer file-sharing network) which was a musicphile's dream.
You could "friend" (or "follow"...I can't remember) people and then gain access to their ENTIRE library.
It was a great way to discover new music or to get hard to find stuff, but since you were downloading directly from users (who weren't always rocking lighting fast upload speeds) it wasn't so great if you weren't willing to wait an hour (or 2 or 5) for your downloads.
It became a regular habit of mine to queue up 2-3 albums to download right before going to bed, so that by the time I woke up in the morning, the transfers would be finished.
So that works out to about 3-4 hours of download time per album.
Now, without incriminating myself too much, I'll just say that I downloaded a lot of albums.
Which meant a lot of waiting (and also a good amout of sleeping 😴).
And here I was freaking out about having to wait all of maybe 8 minutes to upload a file.
Yes, times have changed...and with that so has our expectations.
Immediate gratification is available for pretty much everything.
And while on one hand, I definitely don't want to go back to my dial up days, there is something valuable about having to wait for things every once in awhile.
It's something that we don't have to do very often and, in my opinion, can lead to grown adults (like myself) acting...well, pretty irrational and dare I say, a bit juvenile at times.
But if your goal is to lose weight, patience is going to be a major key to your success.
Unfortunately it's also one of the first things to fly out the window any time we hit a sticking point or reach a "plateau" in our results.
We become like a bratty Veruca Salt..."I want it now and I don't care how!"
We become short sighted. We place blame.
"It must be because I need a different workout routine."
"It must be because I'm on the wrong diet plan."
"It must be because I'm not taking the right supplement."
When we're so used to getting whatever we want, whenever we want, even the smallest wait can feel like an eternity.
We approach weight loss like I did with my file upload.
Just obsessing over the scale instead of the status bar.
"Why won't it move faster???" 😫😫😫
We point fingers, convinced that there's a problem.
When in reality we need to take the mindset of my 16 year old self.
"This process may take awhile...so guess I better figure out a way to deal with it."
When we acknowledge that the weight loss journey is not always speedy and that there are many variables at play (ones that sometimes are out of our control), it gives us permission to not freak out at the first sign of "trouble".
When you accept, in advance, that these things take time, when a "blip" does pop up we can respond with, "cool, I'm prepared for this" instead of "What's the !*$!#&! point?!? Screw this...I'm eating donuts".
Now, I'm not saying that the solution to all your weight loss problems is to just go to sleep anytime your progress stalls (though, honestly that probably wouldn't hurt 🤔🛏).
What I am saying is that patience is something that takes practice.
And the more you practice it, the better at it you'll get.
And the better you are at being patient, the less often you'll swing into bratty Veruca mode when the scale doesn't respond the way you want it to.
Which, in case you hadn't picked up on yet, isn't really the best mindset for assessing the facts of a situation and often leads to making rash decisions.
And the thing is, you can practice being patient with literally ANYTHING and the rewards of that practice will carry over into pretty much every other area of your life.
➡ Back itches?...Can you wait 5 seconds before you scratch it?
➡ Phone notification chimed?...Can you wait 30 seconds before you read the message?
➡ Netflix show ended?...Can you wait 5 minutes before you start the next one?
➡ Craving a cookie?...Can you wait 10 minutes before you decide if you'll eat it?
It's going to be a little uncomfortable.
And that's ok.
If it gets really uncomfortable, stop waiting.
Scratch your back, check your phone, watch the show, eat the cookie.
Or DO SOMETHING ELSE INSTEAD (like maybe go to sleep 😜) to make the waiting more tolerable.
But keep in mind that the more you practice, the easier this will get.
And more importantly, that these things WILL take time, so if you are really serious about losing weight once and for all,
Well...you're going to have to figure out a way to deal with the waiting.
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