Trust the process
Be patient.
Being from the UK teaches you a lot about being patient. This may have changed over the years (I haven’t lived in the UK since 2006), but growing up I was confronted with a lot of situations that helped train my patience.
When you want to go somewhere by bus in the UK, the bus timetable is (as my father would say), “As much use as a chocolate fireguard.” The bus timetables let you know when the bus is supposed to arrive, but when the bus turns up is anybody’s guess. In my area there was an idiom about finding a romantic partner; “My love life is like a bus stop. Nothing happens for a long time and then two come along at once.” This is similar to, “You can’t get a partner until you’ve got a partner,” but is also culturally significant to the bus system in the UK were you can wait for the number 123 bus for 30 minutes, and then two buses displaying the number 123 will arrive at the same time…even though the bus is supposed to arrive every 10 minutes.
British people love to line up, will patiently wait (while grumbling about waiting) endlessly, and the modern Brit will not bring an umbrella with them because standing in a bus shelter for 10 minutes (with no bus in sight) is usually enough time for one of the multiple “scattered showers” to start and stop without causing too much inconvenience in a day.
But not everyone has the “advantage” of being brought up in the UK and being surrounded by this kind of cultural patience. It took me a while to figure out how transferable this is to other aspects of life.
Thank you for your patience in reading this long introduction. On with today’s piece.
Filling in forms
Have you ever met anyone who LOVES filling in forms? I’m sure there are people out there that don’t mind doing it, or even possibly enjoy doing it on some level, but I see filling in forms as something we just have to do to get by in life.
Whether you like it or not, one of the only reasons you ever learn how to write is to fill in a form. You will start filling in forms as soon as you are able to write and you will keep filling in forms until you are physically no longer able to fill in forms.
I have a pretty broad definition on what filling in a form is. Of course filling in an application form is filling in a form, but so is every single time you compose something and send it off. A test at school is a form. A Tweet (post on X) is a form. Ordering something online is a form. Even this article is a kind if form. People with PhDs are masters at filling in forms…because they basically filled in forms until people started calling them doctor.
You may not realize it but many of the things we do start off with filling in forms.
Irons in the fire
When I worked in academia a few years ago I had a lot of projects I was working on at the same time. I’d be doing experiments in the lab for part of the day, teaching for other parts of the day, writing every chance I got, and submitting multiple articles to journals for peer review.
It’s very easy to see the irons you have in the fire when you are an academic. If you’ve written three manuscripts and sent them off to peer review in three different journals, you have three definitive things on the go at the same time. Some journals are quicker than others but there was one time where I wrote an article and it took the journal a whole year to reject it. (That article eventually got published several years later after being put on the back burner for a long time).
Outside of writing I’ve had a lot of irons in the fire with other aspects of my life. Once I got my forms out of the way with joining various martial arts clubs over the years, I’ve needed to spend a certain amount of time practicing things and honing my skills in order to progress to the next level. In 居合道 (iaidō) for example, once you have passed your 初段 (shodan : first level)*, you need to train for one year before you can even attempt your 二段 (nidan). Then you train for two years after your nidan, three years after your 三段 (sandan), four years after your 四段 (yondan) etc etc. It’s a long process. And if it’s literally the only thing you do you are going to have a lot of periods where you don’t see yourself achieving the milestones that help keep us going.
*Note: Just in case. 二 (ni : 2), 三 (san : 3), 四 (yon : 4), 五 (go : 5), and 段 (dan : level).
This is one reason I like to have multiple irons in the fire. While I’m in a period of training and reflection for one art I can be chipping away at something else so I can keep everything in my life turning over.
Trust the process
So you’ve filled in your form and put your iron in the fire. Is that it? Of course it isn’t. Once you’ve signed up for something you’ve got to keep doing what you know you need to do to progress.
You don’t get stronger by signing up for a gym membership and paying the fees. You get stronger by going to the gym and working out.
Anyone who follows me knows that I participate in parkrun. I go and do my 5k runs pretty much every Saturday in order to both improve my running and be part of a fantastic global community. I filled in my form and signed up for my first parkrun on June 18th, 2022. On November 2nd, 2024 I ran my 100th parkrun. That’s 500 km in the same park. I came first place 7 times and ran a personal best of 19:16.
It doesn’t matter how fast you run a parkrun. The process of getting to 100 parkruns is to show up, run 5k, and log your results 100 times. The events pretty much only occur on Saturdays, so to hit 100 you are looking at roughly two years. My running has greatly improved over that time and I’ve met some great friends doing these events. My next milestone is at 250. Getting there is a very simple process of simply showing up and running on a Saturday morning 250 times.
Trusting the process is important. It doesn’t matter what the pursuit is. It’s not complicated to figure out, but people still fail the assignment. Want to be a good runner? Run. Want to be a good fighter? Fight. Want to be good at picking up and putting down heavy things? Pick up and put down heavy things. One of the main reasons people fail at these things is that they don’t trust the process and stop doing what they need to do to progress.
The formula/process for success is generally quite simple:
Step 1. Sign up for the thing.
Step 2. Do the thing.
Step 3. Repeat Step 2
Once you’ve filled in the form it’s an endless loop. But that’s how we get better at things. You can probably modify this into being some kind of flow chart with tests involved to see how good you are, but ultimately all tests show you is whether you’ve actually progressed or not. Just trust the process.
Final thoughts and take home messages
Patience is a virtue. Not only that but it is pretty much essential. You don’t gain anything by losing your cool and flying off the handle due to things that are outside your control. If you are in the UK and the bus is late, blowing a fuse over it isn’t going to make it arrive any quicker. If you know scattered showers have been predicted, stomping out into the rain with no umbrella might save you 5 minutes, but you will get soaked and have a more miserable day than the person who just waited a few minutes for the rain to stop.
Filling in forms is a fact of life. Just deal with it. You can’t escape it. People who never fill in forms never achieve anything. Mostly because they never sign up for anything.
I always have a lot of irons in the fire. I’m always seeking to improve my running, my karate, and my iaidō, but outside of that I have a few other personal projects going on that I just keep chipping away at. It’s all a process.
Having a lot going on means you see results more often. Personally, I think one of the reasons people fail when it comes to trusting the process is that they don’t see results often enough and give up. In October 2023 I passed my yondan in iaidō, so I don’t have eligibility to even attempt my 五段 (godan) until October 2027. But while I’m training for that I achieved to my 100 parkrun milestone in November 2024. I am also getting up to the point where I may have eligibility to attempt my next karate grading in 2025 (or possibly 2026 depending on how my instructor feels).
It’s exactly because I have multiple irons in the fire that I can keep chipping away at multiple things and keep my motivation high. When I have a big event coming up I can change my focus to do more of whatever is coming next while still focusing on the big picture of trusting the process. For example, when I have a big trail running event coming up, I can focus mostly on my trail running and let my other pursuits take a back seat. That doesn’t mean I stop doing other training. I just means emphasize the trail running a bit more than I usually would while still doing what I need to do with my other pursuits.
Fill in the forms, stay patient, and trust the process. Everything will work out if you stay on the path.
Thank you very much for reading. If you enjoy my work please share it with someone you think would also enjoy it.
If you aren’t subscribed, please sign up to keep up to date.
If social media is more your thing I’m active on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
And if you are looking for ways you can support my work please check out the page below:
Osu!
Anthony
Cover image:
That irons in the fire picture is hilarious. Not sure if it makes me or less scared of AI!