080. Sometimes we've got big dreams but we're simply not ready yet. You know that feeling when you're trying to chase your dreams, but it feels like every time you make progress, you're knocked back again? I can't even tell you how many times I thought I was ready for something, only to find myself waiting longer, preparing and then waiting some more.
That's the theme of my show today. It's a tough pill to swallow, but waiting is an essential part of our journey. I share how, like a mountain climber, we need periods of preparation and learning before reaching our goals. I also open up about my own experience with illustrating a children's book, showing that even when you're 'ready', there could still be unexpected hurdles to overcome, and how I put the book away for six more months even after I held the first copy in my hands. I just wasn't ready.
There's a transformative power of waiting, the importance of intentional time, and it's an essential part of our creative process. It's not about slowing down or taking a break, but rather about finding the right balance between progress and pausing. Using the analogy of a potter and her unfinished pieces, I go into how waiting with a wholehearted and contented heart can be one of the most mature and responsible things we can do.
There's more, in todays show I also share ideas on how to make use of your time intentionally and find the encouragement to wait, even when it feels overwhelming. So, join us as we learn to appreciate that sometimes, it's okay to not be ready yet.
00:00:00 Intro 00:01:33 Being Content in the NOW 00:02:54 Getting Ready 00:04:49 The Mother Bird 00:07:02 Sick of the Chicken 00:08:45 On the Shelf Waiting 00:10:48 My Worst Post 00:12:29 How I Got My Cat 00:14:06 The Horrible TechIssues 00:16:07 Step Away 00:17:42 I'm Ready Now 00:19:43 The Pottery Analogy (Again) 00:21:04 Using Waiting Time Intentionally 00:21:47 Closing
080. Sometimes we've got big dreams but we're simply not ready yet. You know that feeling when you're trying to chase your dreams, but it feels like every time you make progress, you're knocked back again? I can't even tell you how many times I thought I was ready for something, only to find myself waiting longer, preparing and then waiting some more.
That's the theme of my show today. It's a tough pill to swallow, but waiting is an essential part of our journey. I share how, like a mountain climber, we need periods of preparation and learning before reaching our goals. I also open up about my own experience with illustrating a children's book, showing that even when you're 'ready', there could still be unexpected hurdles to overcome, and how I put the book away for six more months even after I held the first copy in my hands. I just wasn't ready.
There's a transformative power of waiting, the importance of intentional time, and it's an essential part of our creative process. It's not about slowing down or taking a break, but rather about finding the right balance between progress and pausing. Using the analogy of a potter and her unfinished pieces, I go into how waiting with a wholehearted and contented heart can be one of the most mature and responsible things we can do.
There's more, in todays show I also share ideas on how to make use of your time intentionally and find the encouragement to wait, even when it feels overwhelming. So, join us as we learn to appreciate that sometimes, it's okay to not be ready yet.
00:00:00 Intro 00:01:33 Being Content in the NOW 00:02:54 Getting Ready 00:04:49 The Mother Bird 00:07:02 Sick of the Chicken 00:08:45 On the Shelf Waiting 00:10:48 My Worst Post 00:12:29 How I Got My Cat 00:14:06 The Horrible TechIssues 00:16:07 Step Away 00:17:42 I'm Ready Now 00:19:43 The Pottery Analogy (Again) 00:21:04 Using Waiting Time Intentionally 00:21:47 Closing
Do you ever feel like you're going two steps forward and one step back, like you're pursuing your dreams but you're not getting there very fast and you wonder why? It just feels like you're spinning a hamster wheel, like you're not getting anywhere, and you're oftentimes frustrated and just wondering you know, when is this big moment in life, this summit, this peak, ever going to be attainable? I have an answer for you and I can't promise that you're going to like the answer, but I think the answer that I unveil in this podcast today is worth you sticking around and letting it ruminate in your heart, because for me it was a breakthrough. It was a catalyst kind of thought that brought me a lot of clarity and peace and contentment inside my heart because, as many of you know, I've had a high bar, I've set a high bar in a lot of the things that I'm working to achieve right now in my personal and professional life, and I've been having a lot of setbacks. Those setbacks have discouraged me, made me feel like I'm never going to get where I want to go, and I've wondered if I'd even see my dreams fulfilled in my lifetime. And so, with all of these thoughts of doubt and often frustration, I've had to come to a place of being content right here in the now and knowing that what I sense for the future, the good, the hope, the possibilities it's there.
Marijanel:
But there is a key reason why I haven't experienced it yet. Here it is. I can't promise that you're going to like this answer I'm not ready. You haven't reached your hopes and dreams and fulfilled all of your achievements. Because this, you're simply not ready. Now wait before you turn off the podcast and you shut me out and you say no, no, no, Marijanel , I don't want to hear about not being ready. That's such a negative thing to say. Of course I'm ready. I was born ready. I want this, I'm pursuing this, I'm working so hard. Yes, all of that is true. I've told people before I was born ready. I was born ready to do all that I am after in life. But the truth is I'm not ready, because if I was, it would be happening.
Marijanel:
Because I believe all of life is a preparation. It's a way of getting ready. It's a way of experiencing the journey. If you think about that mountain climber that we've talked about so much in past podcasts, that that journey up the mountain, it is preparation to reach the summit. It is every step, one after the other, a getting ready.
Marijanel:
We're all in it and, funny enough, none of us are ever perfect or where we should be. We're all learning, we're all growing, and no matter who you look up to as your guru, as your mentor, as the one you think, oh, I want to be like them, emulate them someday, I can say this that I know from my own journey that that person too is not ready. They're not ready for what's next in their life, for the summit of what's to come for them personally. We're all in this, and so your frustration and that spinning of the hamster wheel you can stop, take a deep breath and simply say, okay, I'm here right now, in this place, because I'm not ready. I have a knowing of what's to come, the good, the possibilities, the future. We talk about potential here on the Marijanel Show. I wanna unlock your fullest potential through personal and professional growth. But sometimes we have to face it we're not ready yet. So what do we do about that? Here's what I have to say we need to get ready, we need to prepare.
Marijanel:
If you think about a mother getting ready to give birth, we go through this nesting period, this time before birth, where we get ready. Everything within us, every fiber of our being, is preparing for the child. We know that's to come. This is metaphorical, proverbial if you will, for the things that you're to birth in your lifetime. There is a nesting time when you know, okay, I'm not ready, but I'm gonna get ready.
Marijanel:
I also think about the mother bird nesting. If we talk of nesting, the mother bird gathers all those little twigs. Funny enough, I was sitting on my couch the other day and I can see straight down a hallway to the front door where there's a glass window. It's kind of faded out, like the glass window is blurry so no one can see in or out. But you can see the light and I can see the shadow of a wreath on the door. And as I sat there on the couch I could see little birds in my wreath stealing twigs from the wreath. It was really cute. I just saw the little shadows and I sat there looking and enjoying these little birds that were nesting and it got me thinking how very picturesque nesting is to the preparation of all we wanna do entrepreneurially, creatively in our life, that we need to go through that nesting time, that time of getting ready.
Marijanel:
But what is really key is that a lot of us will naturally resent getting ready. We feel like we should be ready, we feel like it should happen by now and we don't want to take the time to gather, to glean, to learn, to grow wise, to just settle into our own skin and be content in the now, letting ourselves get ready for what's to come. And you know, I've told you before in the past, as I'm an illustrator, I had illustrated a children's book in the year of 2022. And during the year of 2022, I often updated the podcast of how the illustrations were going and a little bit about my process of getting that book out of me, and you may remember me sharing that it was actually difficult.
Marijanel:
At times I felt like I had the creative block. I was often bored with the book. I know that sounds not a good thing to say about a beautifully illustrated children's book, but because I was in the process and I had to render so many little chickens the stories about a chicken sitting on her nest. I had to render so many chickens, I was bored and I lost enthusiasm and somewhere in that process I just lost sight of the goal. And then, when I reached the goal close to the end of 2022, I needed to prepare the files for the printer and found that that task was way harder than I ever imagined and I needed to end up hiring help to render the files to get ready to print.
Marijanel:
And by the time that January came of 2023, I ordered my first book. And when it came so I ordered an author's copy and I needed to see it in print and be able to approve it so that I can sell it online. And I got the author's copy in the mail and I opened it and I had no, no feelings really. I felt very indifferent. I was just looking at it, seeing a few little things I wish I could have improved, which is very typical for an artist.
Marijanel:
But I also felt like the process of creating that children's book for an entire year and the effort that I poured into this. I felt that it had drained me in a way I hadn't prepared for mentally or emotionally. And then, by the time I was holding the book, I wasn't too excited about it and, you know, the only thing that I could do was to put it away. Now that sounds like I'd given up. It sounds like I walked away. But I believe that a period of putting something on the shelf and waiting is actually part of our process of achieving. It's part of our process of meeting that goal creatively in order to accept the work we've done with our fullest gratitude and most enthusiasm, that I would absorb and know the joy of that creation I'd brought into the world. And so I put it away, and it has been, I guess, about six months now, that I even looked at the book or thought about the book.
Marijanel:
And as I began to ruminate on this concept of not being ready and how there's been some other aspects of my professional career that I felt like I was hitting my head against a wall, getting things done, and it just felt like you know, as I mentioned in the beginning, two steps forward, one step back, and I realized Marijanel , you're not ready, you're still in the chrysalis, you're the butterfly with wings, but they haven't expanded yet. And guess what? That's okay. Where and how do we get the expectation in our world and society that we should all be full wings, spread, full blossom? All the time there are seasons and times of development and this is what nature and history and even scripture teaches us. This is the wisdom of the old age, that we need to take our time. And I'll tell you a funny, fun fact I posted a short on YouTube about slow growth.
Marijanel:
I've been posting these talking heads of myself with some captions and little words of wisdom that come here from the Marijanel Show , and one of them was me saying something along the lines of I can't guarantee you a fast growth. Going somewhere and achieving something takes time. And guess what? There were no views. No one liked that. I called it something like slow growth is okay, and no one wants to hear that. We live in a fast paced, microwave society that wants everything instant, right now, and that is not what nature teaches us. We need to look around at the world and see that beautiful things emerge slowly.
Marijanel:
And so here I have with me the second order of my children's book Wait, darling, wait. I'm showing here on YouTube all of you on audio apps can hop over to YouTube perhaps next week, because next week I'm going to read this book, even though it's a children's book. I'm going to read it for all of you adults who follow the Mary Janelle show and I'm going to let you inside the pages as I share my heart with the world, and if you hop back in previous episodes of the Marijanel Show , you will hear me touch on different stories and aspects of this book where really it came to me. At a time that we were selling our farm. I was very impatient to move on in life and the story came to me like it almost like flew with wings out of heaven and landed in my imagination, and it was one of the main reasons that I found and purchased a little orange kitten, who I have to this day, and his name is Russell, and someday I really need to tell everyone on the Marijanel Show how about Russell, because he is a really cool cat, but also he was a big part of this whole story and how. I don't know if you can see this cat, the orange cat, here on this page. Russell is a big part of my life and story and came to me through the creation of this book.
Marijanel:
And so weight, darling weight, is a story where the animals on a sunny farm discover patience and positivity, while chicken has a big surprise. Okay, so chicken has a big surprise and I'm going to give away a spoiler Chicken is very patient and it's something that the other animals on the farm don't understand, and you know how an author can relate to multi facets of all their multi characters, like there's a little sliver of ourselves in every single character we create. Well, as I wrote and illustrated this book, I felt at times like I was the chicken, very patient, waiting, waiting. Other times I felt like I were the busy body, animals who were nosy and impatient, pestering chicken why are you sitting on your nest? Now? That's all I want to say for today, because next week I'm going to open the pages of this book.
Marijanel:
Now I want to tell you that I know for sure I've gone through a personal transformation since the time that I received my first copy in January till now when I received my second copies, because I put it away and I was able to disengage from all the frustration, the tech issues. I had so many technical issues with the computer and the files and the color renderings, everything it was. That part was a nightmare and I had to completely step away from that and let myself rest. And at times this niggling thought would come to me Mary Janelle, you finished or you started something you're never going to finish. You have this, once again unfinished project of this children's book, which in actual fact, it was a completed render. It was completed printed version of the kids book. So I finished the kids book, but I didn't ever take it a step further to release it to the world.
Marijanel:
And I'm of the mind that an artist, a creator, an entrepreneur, even you, were meant to release what we imagine and what we make to the world. Without the release, we just have treasures hidden away, gifts hidden away under our beds and in our closets. It's meant to be released. And so that niggling thought was coming to me, because I hadn't released the book, I hadn't given copies to my loved ones, I hadn't sold copies to people who've been asking me, and I felt once again like I had built a half done bridge. Or you know, I just had these half projects and it bothered me.
Marijanel:
But what I've been really realizing about process and development is that part of my personal creative process is to put something away for a long time. I can't tell you how long that will be. For every piece of art or project it's different. It depends on all the feelings that I experienced during the journey of that project. But what I do know is that that stepping away, that losing attachment, helps me to pull it back out and reattach, in a way, more positive headspace and heart space. And so when my second order came in the mail, I opened it and I experienced joy and I'm I'm going to tear up right now. And I didn't expect this. I didn't expect any tears relating to this.
Marijanel:
But what you have to know about you and me, but you is that sometimes we're grieving and we're having turmoil because we haven't seen the fruition, we haven't seen the manifestation of what we know is possible. And in the time of waiting it can hurt, it can feel lonely, it can be confusing and the only thing we can do in the time of waiting to keep our hearts wholehearted you know, I spoke in a couple episodes ago about being wholehearted in our search to be wholehearted individuals. The only thing we can do in our time of waiting is to wait and to know this hasn't come to pass yet because we're not ready. And when I receive the second copy of this book, I opened it and realized I'm ready. I'm ready to put this out there now, I'm ready to read it on video on a kid's YouTube channel. I'm ready to have other people have this in their kids book basket and enjoy it and I needed to come to peace with my own art and my own place in the process and waiting.
Marijanel:
Waiting is one of the most mature, responsible things we can do and our society doesn't want to wait. We don't want to wait. You don't want to wait. You want your dreams fulfilled now. If you have a knowing that your business is going to succeed and you're going to be wealthy and you're going to have all of these crazy endeavors in your life, and you know this, you have a knowing, but it's not happening and you feel like it's so distant and you're so frustrated. You're not ready. You're here now and the best thing you can do is wait and wait with a whole expectant, contented heart.
Marijanel:
And so, as I've shared the story of my book Wait, darling Wait, and a little bit about my emotional process bringing this book into existence, in a sense nesting, and then realizing that I needed to wait and as I've brought this forward in today's podcast, I hope that it's landed in a place in your life with whatever it is you're waiting for, whatever it is you hope for, that you would think of this little book and think of oh wait, there's something to this, there's a breakthrough in accepting that I'm in preparation and I'm not ready. And one more analogy, one more just proverbial picture here, going back to the days that I was a potter, and I love to draw on this analogy. I would often have unfinished pieces on the shelf for a long period of time, and sometimes I could imagine them asking me questions, as if they had little personalities, and they'd say Marijanel, why did that one get fired and glazed? And I'm just still sitting here and my only answer as the creator is you're not ready. I have plans for you and you're not ready and I'm not ready to move forward with you yet. And so just be, just rest. The time on the shelf is a safe place. The time on the shelf is a place you can build resilience and strength.
Marijanel:
I have a friend who I've done many podcasts with, over on the bold artist podcast, and she spoke of a time, a season in her life when her little ones were little and busy and took all of her attention and she couldn't be the artist that she knew she was meant to be. She's a painter and she just wanted to pour herself into paintings, but she couldn't because of the stage of life she was at with children. So what she did was she intentionally used her time getting ready and she studied. She studied the color books. She studied the way material moved, even if she couldn't finish a whole piece. She studied her medium. She studied her all of her theory. I just dropped my book. She studied and studied and used her time intentionally and now she's emerged from that chrysalis as an amazing artist leading an online art school.
Marijanel:
You can find us over at the bold artist podcast on the bold school YouTube channel. Check that out. Links are below and you know, I just want you to know that, taking from her story and my story, find the encouragement to use your time intentionally when you're not ready. Wait, darling, wait. I'm going to read it to you next week. I'll see you there. You'll find all my links below. Get in touch, stay in touch and until next time, keep on in the full potential of you.
