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When it looks like there’s nothing happening.
Written by Kate Northrup
There are times when it looks like nothing is going on. The fields lay fallow, and they just look like dirt for a long time.
The trees are barren all winter. Looking at them in February, you’d swear they’ll never bud again.
The ground is frozen solid, covered in snow. It seems seriously dead.
You sit on a creative project for months. Nothing gets put on paper. No visual progress is made.
You get clear on your desire, do your visualizing, magnetize it every day, and yet see no results. What you want appears to be nowhere in sight.
For 9 months you go about your daily life (the best you can) while your belly gets softer and rounder, then swells incrementally each day. There’s not a lot of conscious effort going on.
But somehow, an entire human being is formed.
Somehow, when the weather turns suddenly – pop! – the trees are back in action. Buds quickly explode into blooms and leaves. It feels like all the action took place overnight. But really there was a lot going on the entire time it looked like nothing was going on.
Somehow, one day you look down and where yesterday there was nothing but freezing mud, little green shoots poke their heads up, waving hello.
Somehow, 6 months after you think you actually should have started tangible work on the project, words flow. Pages are filled virtually overnight. The project is done before you know it.
Somehow, after you’ve gotten too busy living and loving your life to be impatient, your desire manifests in a miraculous, nonsensical way that you never could have imagined.
The trick is trust.
Worrying about whether or not our creation will eventually manifest doesn’t help it grow. And it certainly doesn’t speed the process.
In fact, it’s just the opposite.
OUR IMPATIENCE ACTS AS A TOURNIQUET ON THE PROGRESS WE CANNOT SEE. (TWEET IT!)
Just because we cannot see it does not mean it’s not happening.
I waited over 3 months to get visual proof that there was, indeed, a baby growing in my belly (other than looking like I’d eaten too many burritos).
We wait all winter to see some evidence that the world will be green once more.
We wait months, sometimes years, for our internal gears to turn in just such a way that we can actually say what we want to say in the way we want to say it.
We wait what seems like our entire lives to meet that one person who changes everything.
WHAT DOES ALL THE WAITING HAVE IN COMMON?
It’s worth it. Every time.
I signed my book contract in the fall. I started writing it in February. I wrote one chapter. Then I spent the rest of the winter and spring ruminating, organizing my sock drawer, cleaning out my inbox, and feeling like maybe I should be writing every day. But I wasn’t.
Then in May I was ready. I sat down every day from 8-9am with my coffee and smoothie. I did a headstand, lit a candle, said a prayer, and wrote. By June 1st I had a book.
THE 9 MONTHS I SPENT NOT WRITING THE BOOK WAS PART OF WRITING IT.
And cleaning out my sock drawer, looking as though I wasn’t making progress, was part of the creative process.
THE KEY IS TRUST.
We trust that spring comes after winter.
We trust that after 9 months the baby will be ready to come out.
May we also trust that what we desire is on our way to us, even if the physical evidence appears to the contrary.
May we also trust that, even when we feel like we should be further along than we are on project x, y or z, we’re right where we should be.
There’s a lot that has to happen for something to happen that we can’t see.
May we trust that it’s all happening, just as it should.
OVER TO YOU:
Where can you trust more in your life? What do you know in your heart is happening at the right time? Leave a comment below – I’d love to hear from you.
Kate Northrup is a professional freedom seeker and creative entrepreneur. She created financial freedom for herself at the age of 28 through building a team of more than 1,000 wellness entrepreneurs in the network marketing industry. Her philosophy is that if you free yourself financially you can be fully present to your purpose on the planet. Her first book, Money: A Love Story with Hay House is NOW AVAILABLE! She continues to mentor entrepreneurs in creating financial freedom. Find out more and take her free quiz to find out what your relationship with money says about you at http://www.katenorthrup.com.