Handling the Frustration of Waiting

So it’s 9:30 a.m. and I’m sitting here, waiting to know when they’ll arrive… I have several other things to do today, but I have to be here. I’ll bet you’ve had that kind of experience, the frustration of waiting for an unknown length of time, and I suspect that I am not alone in beginning to fret about it.

Will they get the work done this morning? This afternoon? Is there time for me to run errands before they arrive? Should I wait until they come even if they don’t show up until late afternoon? They called me several weeks ago to say they’d install today but I did not ask them what time. Because the store does not open until 10 a.m. I can’t reach anyone right now. And, of course, I would like to know… RIGHT NOW! Not happy.

That’s a stumbling block. “Time to stop the blame game and do a reframe.”

Of course it’s partly my fault. I could have called them yesterday to check on the time but, quite frankly, I forgot. So maybe rather than getting into a snit I should be thinking of how I can best spend the time usefully without getting involved in anything lengthy, like re-vamping this website, because “they” might arrive at any minute.

This is where a “Five minute to-do” list comes in handy. I used to keep one, and at this moment I wish I still did. There are all those little tasks that I pass by because of their relative unimportance when compared with my “real” projects. Yet they mount up, they are irritators – “tolerations” as we used to call them in the coaching world from way-back.

I’ll take a hint from “get things done” guru David Allan and walk the house, clip-board in hand, to make my lists… a 5-minute list and a project list. If “they” have still not arrived after that I’ll catch up on my reading. Those are stepping stones.

My time will not be wasted.

How about you? What do you do when you have to sit and wait? Do you take a book or a “reader” to appointments where you may have to wait? (I prefer a “real” book because some places ask that one turn of electronic gadgets in the waiting room.)

What do you do when you start to get irritated? I hope you don’t sit and fume, because fuming can ruin one’s day and sometimes other people’s as well. The stumbling blocks can seem to grow ever larger as we fume… On the other hand, lemons do make great lemonade – and that is a positive that can be shared with others – another stepping stone.

Hoping that you have – or will find – your own processes so that you use your wating moments in ways that make you feel fabulous! 

Diana

Postscript – after I had written this they responded to my call, they arrived at 11: a.m. and were done by noon!

Stumbling and Stepping is a blog written weekly – or thereabouts – and I hope you will visit often. If you are a follower on Twitter (where I am choicecoach) or my Face Book The Balanced Coach page, you will get an alert when I post anew. My newsletter, “Work in Progress – because we all are”, is available by subscription, at no cost. It focuses on life balance as the basis for enjoying life – in a very broad view and NOT just in the sense of “work-life balance.” If you would like to subscribe, please complete the form on the right of this page. Your information will never be shared or sold, and you will be able to unsubscribe with the click of your keyboard – although I hope you won’t decide to.