Ep 3: Life Coaching Pro Tip: Act While You Wait
In this conversation, Asha Wilkerson discusses the importance of taking action while waiting for desired outcomes. She shares a personal experience of being caught in a winter storm and losing power, highlighting the need to be proactive in difficult situations. Asha emphasizes that waiting should not be passive, but rather an opportunity to take steps towards achieving goals. She encourages listeners to identify their goals and desires, and then create a list of actions they can take while waiting. Asha also mentions the benefits of seeking support through life coaching.
Takeaways
Being patient does not mean being passive; taking action while waiting is essential.
Underestimating the situation can lead to frustration and feeling helpless.
Stop waiting without taking action and start preparing for the future.
Behave in a proactive manner while waiting to ease the situation or move it along.
Taking action and seeking support, such as life coaching, can help in achieving goals.
Healing is crucial for repairing relationships and living authentically.
Chapters
(00:00) Taking Action While Waiting
(01:06) Underestimating the Situation
(02:03) Feeling Helpless and Frustrated
(03:23) Taking Action and Feeling Empowered
(04:23) Stop Waiting Without Taking Action
(05:02) Preparing for the Future
(06:08) Behaving While Waiting
(07:03) Taking Action and Seeking Support
(07:33) Healing and Living Authentically
To learn more about starting your healing journey with me, head to ashawilkerson.com!
Resources
Interested in working with Asha? Click here to get on her calendar for a discovery call.
Follow Asha on Instagram @AshaWilkersonEsq
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Asha Wilkerson (00:10.918)
Welcome back. Today I want to dive into one of my favorite pro tips which is taking action while you wait. I know that we're all taught especially as little girls to wait patiently and patiently meant not interrupting, making waves, or asking for anything more. You basically just had to sit there and wait to receive. But that's complete BS. Being patient has nothing to do with not taking action.
In fact, the best way to wait is to take action while you're waiting. Now I know that this is counter-cultural, so let me take a moment to explain. I was caught up in Portland's epic snowstorm a few weeks ago. The storm came in with a vengeance late Friday and early Saturday morning, and the city was quickly covered in snow and freezing rain. It halted traffic and downed power lines like nothing I had ever seen before.
My mom and I lost power Saturday morning around 1030, and we weren't surprised. Actually, we anticipated the power outage, and we thought that we were well prepared. I'd gone to the grocery store the day before to get cold cuts and easy things to eat, since we knew the power would probably blow, but we weren't, and we knew that we wouldn't be able to use our electric stove. So we had candles ready to light, and we knew where all the blankets were. But we only figured that at most, we'd be out of power to the next day, maybe 24 hours.
but we also hoped that it would only be for a few hours. What we didn't expect was temperatures way below freezing, and we were completely wrong about the length of the power outage. Not only did we underestimate the length of time for the power outage, but we also had no real understanding of how much the temperature would drop. When we went to sleep the very first night, Saturday night, the temperature had already dropped down inside the house to the low 40s or the high 40s and low 50s. When we woke up the next day,
47 degrees inside my room, but I was still hopeful, naively hopeful. My mom and I both figured that the power would come back on, so we set out to keep warm while patiently waiting for it to return. But after a few hours, my patience totally started to wear thin. I recounted all the times that I begged my mom to get a gas stove when she upgraded her appliances.
Asha Wilkerson (02:27.562)
in 2018. I was so mad that she didn't listen because now I was cold when I could have at least made us a hot meal to keep us warm if we had a gas stove. I was also mad at myself for not thinking about hooking her up with a generator. The neighbors had one on one side and the neighbors two doors down had one also. But how come I didn't think to get her one? I was also mad at my mom for declining my offer to go to the hotel the night before, before it got too cold because she was
Validly concerned that the roads would be too slick to drive on. But because she chose not to go, we were in the house cold and cold in the house. I was mad that we were waiting for the electric company to do its thing and all I could do was wait. Our phones were charged, so of course I was scrolling through Instagram. What else do you do when you have time? And I saw my friend post a picture of her husband cooking breakfast for their family using the barbecue grill. Brilliant. Absolute genius.
So of course, once I saw that, I got to work pulling out our barbecue grill and lighting that bad boy up. It took more than a few matches and some lighter fluid, but eventually I got the cold to light and made us some coffee and some hard boiled eggs. Those were the best eggs I'd ever had because of the circumstances. That little act though, made all of the difference in the world. The coffee was great and invigorating, but that's not really what it was. And it definitely wasn't the eggs. It was the act.
of taking action to help myself that became the game changer. My mood lifted. I stopped feeling helpless and just waiting for the power company to do its thing became easier because I'd also started helping myself. And again, going back to what I said in the beginning, the best thing that you can do while you wait is to take action. So in life, sometimes the storms in
Asha Wilkerson (04:23.27)
In life's storms, sometimes we end up waiting for a rescue. And sometimes we wait for our boss to get fired, for work to become more bearable. We're waiting for our partner to leave the relationship so we don't have to make the uncomfortable decision to call it quits. Or we're waiting on our best friend to plan the trip so we don't have to go by ourselves. Stop waiting without taking action.
You may be waiting for your supervisor to change, but what are you doing in the meantime to build your skills and to increase your readiness for the promotion you want?
Asha Wilkerson (05:02.73)
You may be waiting for your partner to walk out, but do you have a plan for what you're going to do when you become single again? How can you prepare while you're waiting? And with trip planning, I know solo travel can be daunting if you've never done it before, but baby girl, I want you to stop waiting on others to make your dreams come true. Because if you keep waiting on them, it will never happen. Years ago, when I read daily devotionals and attended church regularly like a long time ago,
I came across a quote by George, by.
Asha Wilkerson (05:38.858)
Years ago, when I read daily devotionals and attended church regularly, I came across a quote by Joyce Meyer. It says, patience is not simply the ability to wait. It's how we behave while we're waiting. And I think about that all the time. What can I do while waiting to ease my situation or to move it along? In the winter storm, I chose to pull out the barbecue grill. Now, my question to you is, where can you take action while you're waiting?
I encourage you to pull out your journal and to do the following exercises. I want you to write down your goals and desires. These are the things that you're actually waiting on. They may include getting a new job, finding a husband, or even getting divorced. But then underneath each goal or desire that you have, I want you to write down the actions you can take while you wait. This might include taking a class. It might include saving money or calling in more support.
Think of these actions as creating the space you need for your desires to come to fruition. Some might make you more uncomfortable or some might make you more comfortable while you wait thinking like the barbecue grill and others might create opportunities for you to meet the right people, to get what you want and what you need. And after you have your list of actions that you can take while you wait, get busy. And if you'd like personal support, life coaching is an
Excellent option as a life coach for black women and women of color I will help you identify your true desires and guide you to pursue them We will build your confidence and self-trust for a life that's authentically yours So book a call on my calendar today If you have questions and you need answered about life coaching head to asha wilkerson.com Coaching and we can talk all about them and remember that although this episode wasn't specifically about healing
I want to remind you that it's because I've healed that I've been able to repair my old relationships and start ones from a new perspective. It's because I've healed that I've been able to leave expectations behind that no longer serve me. And it's because I've healed that I'm currently living my dream life out loud with no regrets.