The Waiting Game

How good are you at the waiting game? I'll admit it, my waiting skills are less than stellar.  As an artist, you are thrown into this game constantly: with an audition, with a query letter, with a grant proposal, with an application to teach a workshop or class, the list goes on and on. Everyone has to wait at some point, and even if you don't identify as an artist, you have likely had to wait for test results, a job offer, or simply in the long grocery store line. No one escapes. 

I've tried to cultivate more patience with this process, but am far from where I'd like to be in order to keep myself sane on a daily basis. Right now, for example, I'm waiting to hear back about a few potential projects for the fall and I'm starting to get very impatient. The last thing I want to do is become that pesky person who emails every day to “check in” or leave more voicemails than are welcome. I’m feeling kind of stuck at how to get better at waiting, so I tried seeking out some advice from the interwebs. Here are a few different takes on patience and waiting from different places around the web:


1. Bryan Cranston's advice to actors that applies to everyone: "Walk away, that's it...there's power in that...I can only do so much."

2. I love Jenna Fischer from The Office, and she has written some great blog articles, including this one, where she talks about having the patience to work as an "unknown" in L.A. for eight years (!) before landing the role of Pam:
http://www.actorsinfobooth.com/industry-news/hollywood/752-jenna-fischers-advice-to-actors

3. Tiny Buddha is one of my favorite positive psychology blogs online and this is a great little post about learning to cultivate patience while you wait for the next chapter, whatever that may be for you: 
http://tinybuddha.com/blog/power-patience-let-go-anxiety-let-things-happen/


4. A really interesting New Times article about the psychology of waiting that offers some scientific insights into why waiting for that callback or job offer is so tough. According to the article, "Investing upfront in realistic time frames — and learning to adjust those time frames as new information becomes available — may help us resist the pull of rewards that come too soon. Controlling our sense of the future, in other words, may help us control our behavior in the present."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/opinion/sunday/youre-so-self-controlling.html 


5. I found this humorous but practical guide to taking care of yourself after submitting your work for publication, but it easily applies to waiting on a job interview, audition, or the like. It has some concrete, practical suggestions of things to do in that in between time: 
http://www.tinhouse.com/blog/16373/how-to-stay-sane-while-querying-literary-agents.html


Let me know if you have any go-to strategies for getting better at waiting--I'd love to add to my toolbox!