Waiting

For the past two weeks I have been waiting. I’m not very good at waiting. I’m also not the best at admitting I’m not particularly good about something I think I should have mastered by now.

But, by being open and telling you, it’s helping my resolve to work on it... I'll get better at waiting!

The wait this time has been for the results of my Transformational Life Coaching Diploma which I submitted a fortnight ago. I wasn’t a perfectionist in the process: as a self-employed hustler, I know the value in not spending too much time on something and having the confidence to step back and say “it’s not perfect but it’s good enough”.

But as I clicked send on the submission, the “it’s good enough” stopped feeling so confident. I calmly told myself it was fine. I’m not scared of failure and happy to resubmit. That still holds true. It was the not knowing the outcome that wobbled me not the fear of failure. Especially right now, when so many things are uncertain and, lets face it, in one way or another we’re all a bit wobbly.

7am this morning was when the wait was over. I had passed. Relief flooded through first – not really because of the result, but because I no longer had to wait. How silly is that? I felt I should be immediately taking stock and celebrating the success, but instead I was just pleased I wasn’t in limbo anymore.

A few hours on, I am taking stock now. It feels great. Maybe even more so because 90% of the work happened in lockdown.

That’s 8 full training days on zoom, 40 practice hours, 6 hours being coached myself, 2 essays and one recorded assessment. All in lockdown. And, as a single mum whose co-parent is a key worker, most of that was achieved with two kids in the house. I feel pretty blooming Mighty about that.

But this post isn’t all about me boasting (although it’s nice to do that a little bit every now and again).

My current musings are more about waiting.

Last week I was introduced to the Dutch word voorpret. Its definition is:

“Pre-fun. Joy or pleasure ahead and in anticipation of the actual fun event”

Now that sounds right up my alley. I wonder what I could have done in the past two weeks to have more of a voorpret mindset? Maybe this wait is too much of a loaded one for it to have worked.

So, what can it work with? Exciting events coming up would do. Not only putting them in the diary but also on the calendar and even having a countdown can raise your endorphin levels.

Every morning my 9yo asked me what he has got to look forward to that day. Thinking about it now, I reckon he’s definitely in a voorpret mindset!

It’s easy to consume quickly these days, from box sets to treat food. It’s there: available; the box set binge is a celebrated thing. But remember how good it felt when the week had finally come around and your favourite show was on again. There’s some serious voorpret right there. When I was about 15 it was the wait for The Mary Whitehouse Experience and for the measly 35 minutes of drama we got in school each week that I had the feelings of voorpret about.

Right now, it’s about meeting up with friends, especially those I’ve not seen in a while. It’s about making myself wait for a glass of something lovely or a foodie treat. And very recently, I’ve started to feel that sense of excited anticipation about getting on the yoga mat. That one is quite surprising, but I’m certainly not going to dismiss it!

So over to you… when do you get a sense of voorpret? And how can you build on that with spacing things out a little, slowing down or creating exciting reminders about something fabulous in the future?