The Long View

One of the virtues that age has brought me is patience. Taking a long view on a problem or challenge dilutes the urgency to take immediate action there by allowing time to gather facts, and ponder on a more suitable outcome.

In my youth, it was easy to get frustrated and give up when obstacles got in the way of my goals. I could visualize what I wanted to attain and even how I wanted to achieve it, but if the project was not going according to the plan I set out, sometimes it was easier to just give up.

To everything there is a season, and I time for every purpose under the heaven.

Book of Ecclesiastes

Sometimes things aren’t meant to work out, not as planned at any rate. Have you ever had something not work out? Maybe had a job end, or a relationship fail only to look back on it later and realize it is relief you feel not sorrow. Did you learn anything from the experience? When you take a backwards long view on an issue and understand the purpose behind the outcome, that is were you will find an opportunity for personal growth.

Even when you try really hard but things still don’t work out as planned you have to realize that some things are just out of your personal control. Fate loves to throw curve balls every now and then. Sometimes fate hits a home run and the sudden change can be liberating and fortune shines on you. Sometimes fate makes you strike out at the game of life and you may have to sit out until the next inning. Sometimes you need to find a completely new game.

Having learned the art of patience, I have also learned to wait for the life lesson. Just as autumn follows summer and spring follows winter, I am becoming to understand that there are seasons to my life. A time for success, a time for failure, a time for learning, a time for forgetting, but all benefit me as I continue to experience and learn.

The forwards long view is to know that nothing last forever, this too shall pass.

Taking the long view and having patience helps to avoid becoming cynical and hardened to life – why me, poor me, I didn’t deserve this! The long view helps you rise above the storm clouds surrounding you so you can see off to the distance. You may just see the sunshine up ahead. The higher you rise above, the farther you can see giving you a better perspective of the situation.

When I first started this blog I knew that I wanted to develop it slowly. Actually, I had no choice in this because I really know squat about blogging but I have taken the long view on this project, in time, with a little faith and patience, the blogging knowledge and the readers will come. Each day I take another step on this path and learn a little more. Before long I will be able to take a long view both backwards and forwards on this blog. Then, I will have a 360 degree view of the blogging world landscape where I might then, be able to say, I really do know something about it.

In the meantime, knowing that the journey is long, I may as well get comfortable, maybe grab another coffee, put my feet up and enjoy the view.