___ “PATIENCE IS BITTER, BUT ITS FRUIT IS SWEET.”
~ ARISTOTLE ___ ___
I used to rush through things I did not like to do to get them done, versus accept the process and pace myself.
Learning to find pleasure in a task that is routine or technically challenging is new to me. Being bored is not something I easily tolerate.
Yet, as many of us are learning through the pandemic, being present in the moment is what brings us the greatest peace. Looking back and reviewing some of our losses can feel sad, and looking ahead can feel overwhelming at all the ways our world will continue to change.
A new type of discipline is required to focus on the possibilities that an even greater, more loving and compassionate, connected world will emerge from this worldwide challenge.
Thinking big picture, through every baby step forward, helps.
I’m trying to use that strategy around the huge task of re-branding my business.
One of the major patience-testing activities for me is creating a new website that reflects several recent, deeply transformative years—and hundreds of hours in additional trainings, upgrading my skills to help clients achieve faster breakthroughs.
Having been an author twice I can tell you this: Creating a new website often feels more labor-intensive than writing a book. Achieving clarity to define the new message, and then pull together all the pieces, takes time.
There have been so many details, from creating a new logo and seven high-end videos, to updating mailing lists and sorting through thousands of photos to select a few pictures that mirror the image I want to project. I am so grateful for the friends who patiently reviewed some of my choices, and then edited early drafts of the new copy.
Writing all new content and managing a team that includes a videographer, a graphic designer and a web designer–while also coaching a diversity of clients and writing a slew of blogs offering guidance through this pandemic–has been a juggling act. To do all the tasks well sometimes means working 12- hour days, seven days a week—not something I was accustomed to after achieving great work-life balance (which had included a lot more play this past year).
Patience to hold on, when the road feels weary, tests the best of us.
Thinking “short-term pain for long-term gain” is the motto I am living by in the moment. I could have quickly put up a website template and be done with pushing through the myriad of details. And, I was tempted many a day to take the faster route. Yet, my wise web designer said, “I’ll put something up quick for you if that is what you want, but the site will just sit there and not work for you in the best ways I know how to optimize it to bring you more clients.”
So, I am opting to slow down, and choosing to be patient, to allow for a beautiful new, balanced creation to emerge in excellence, with all the pieces properly aligned.
The pandemic, for all its pain and challenges, is also serving in slowing all of us down. Like my website, nature needs time to reboot, and so do we.
The process of transformation cannot be rushed.
Blessings,
Gail
P.S.—And, I hope you will be patient with me next month when my new site launches, and you start receiving my blog posts from a different URL, not Support Matters. There may be a technical glitch or two transferring from one site to another. I’ll give you advance warning before the new site goes live (and I’ll disclose the name of my new site as we get closer). I am so excited to share with you leading-edge content and many divinely inspired reflections.
I took the above photo at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University, Durham, shortly after relocating to North Carolina two years ago. The beauty of these magical gardens reminds me of the many ways nature inspires us to believe in the promise of a lush new season of life (and the patience it takes to grow into it sometimes).
Gail Kauranen Jones is an intuitive coach, gifted wordsmith and inspiring teacher who has been leading others through transformation for more than twenty years. She is the author of two books, Cancer as a Love Story: Developing the Mindset for Living, and To Hell and Back…Healing Your Way through Transition. Both books were met with rave reviews on Amazon and elsewhere.
She recently appeared as a guest “worthiness coach” on CBS TV’s award-winning talk show The Doctors and on Sirius FM Radio. Her articles and “tips” on worthiness have also appeared several times in Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper.
She has taught many leading-edge workshops at top spas and wellness centers. She now leads Zoom group coaching programs and is a guest speaker at many related events.
Gail lives a passionate and simple life writing, hiking, connecting in meaningful ways, aligning in joyful collaboration and thriving in nature.