$pent Millennial

At the beginning of the year, like many people, I set some goals for myself—areas of growth that I wanted to work on. One of those goals was to be more patient this year. I wanted to be intentional in practicing patience both in the moments and in the process. I have gone a bit into how I have been working on practicing patience in the moment in previous posts. It is a work in progress, still messy and hard, but I am working on it.

Today, I want to dive into another type of patience I need to work on: patience in the process.

Three Projects Testing My Patience in the Process

1. The Bedroom Space Hack

A few months ago, I shared about my bedroom space hack.

Now, there is a difference between patience and inaction or procrastination. I have been doing the latter on this project. When I think about it though, one big reason for my inaction and proctrastination is my impatience with the process. I want to dive in and whip out a new space reveal in a few hours like an episode of Hack my Home. 

When it becomes apparent this is not going to be the case, I lack the motivation to dig into the work. 

In order to move forward on the project and practice patience in the process, I have broken it into manageable steps to act on and track progress on. 

In a previous post where I shared about this project, I shared some initial steps I would take with a timeline attached. These steps included an update within about a month. So, here is that update. 

Here are the steps I’ve taken so far:

1. Plan: I drafted an initial plan to visualize the end goal.
2. Declutter: I started decluttering, putting clothes into donation bags—which are currently in my trunk. (Let me go find a clothes drop for those…)
3. Inventory: I took note of what I have for the plan as well as what is needed (and what needs to go, see the decluttering step).
4. Budget: I put together a list of necessary items for the plan and sourced and priced them. As of right now, I am looking at around $100 in organization and other materials. (Don’t hold me to it! Or, maybe do. We are about accountability here) 

So, with those steps taken, I have the following steps to tackle moving forward:

1. Money Management Plan: Fit the project budget into my monthly budget(s)
2. Shop: Finding the right items within my budget.
3. Implement: Bringing the plan to life in my space.

I need to find how that budget and money plan works in my budget for this month and the upcoming months. From there, I will get shopping for some of the organizational supplies and work on bringing the plan to life- adjusting as needed. 

2. Fully Funding My Emergency Savings

Another project requiring patience is my savings goal to fully fund my emergency savings. This one is all about steady progress and resisting the urge to dip into the savings for non-emergencies or give up and re-allocate the monthly contributions to more immediate gratification. Here’s how I’ve been managing it:

1. Setting a monthly savings goal.
2. Monthly transfers- I actually do not automate. I send the transfers every month. Doing so keeps me mindful in the process and gives me a sense of satisfaction in doing so. 
3. Tracking my progress to stay motivated. I have a savings tracker in my budget planner that I get to color (2nd-grade teacher style) to visualize the progress. 

It’s a slow journey, but seeing my emergency fund grow bit by bit is incredibly rewarding. Security is a major money script of mine, so reminding myself of the security it provides and that alignment with my values helps keep me motivated. 

3. The Planting Experiment

Finally, I threw some seeds in a planter with the hopes that something green might spring from them. Gardening is a humbling exercise in patience and always seems like it is a hobby for people much more patient than I am. Yet, the hippie in me loves the idea of growing things of my own from the seed up. So, it is a hobby that I want to dig deeper into. It might even be a good practice in developing patience for my own personal growth. 

 Here’s the process so far:

1. Planting: I was gifted some seeds for Easter and then found some for $0.25 at Dollar Tree. I also found out that Dollar Tree sells dirt, so I got some and thew it all together into some planters I had on my balcony. 
2. Watering: I’ve been watering the planters and doing my best to monitor them, shielding them from heavy rain and checking to make sure they have enough water. 
3. Waiting: For days, I saw nothing but soil. And soil that, being from Dollar Tree, is not the beautiful, nutrient-rich base for planting gardeners likely prefer. The Dollar Tree soil looked more like mud when wet and cracking cement when dry. In addition to subpar soil, the sunlight isn’t always a guarantee due to heavy shade from trees over the balcony. AND one more struggle is the leaves and things that fall off of the trees into our planters, green specks that make it hard to tel if I am looking at hope, or just another plant’s debris. 
4.  Hope: But, just when I was starting to lose hope, a few tiny sprouts appeared. They have differentiated themselves from some of the other debris by showing their sprouts! 

The tiny green sprouts are a reminder that patience in the process often brings about unexpected joys. Will these sprouts grow into healthy plants? Time will tell, but I’m hopeful.

Embracing Patience

Patience in the process is not about doing nothing; it’s about taking small, consistent steps towards your goal. It’s about trusting that these steps, even when they seem small or insignificant, are leading you somewhere meaningful. It’s a work in progress for me, and I suspect maybe I am not alone in that and some of you reading might relate.

I hope you’ll join me in this journey. Let’s practice patience together and celebrate the small victories along the way. What projects are testing your patience in the process? Share your stories and let’s support each other in this journey of growth.