Work Mode with Brown Uzoukwu: Please Wait While Your Transaction is Processing

Yes. Finally it’s my birthday today. So, you will permit me to digress a bit from our usual career and workplace matters. I really want to share something different with all of us today as I celebrate an additional year in my life. I believe strongly that this piece is for someone, somewhere, who thinks that things are actually not working according to plan and he or she is racing against time.

It all started on Friday. By 7:54a.m., I hit the road en route to my office. With all my goals clearly laid out the night before, I had not even a dollop of time to spare! “If I must achieve all my goals within the available time, then I must get on with each one fast.” This was the philosophy I bore in the theatre of my mind as I moved to implement the first item on my list. I had quite a number of goals on the list, and one of them was to do a quick run to the bank, make a few withdrawals, then get back online for a virtual class I was supposed to facilitate,
By the time I finished attending to some vital office matters, it appeared I was already running out of time to make my class.

Quickly, I grabbed hold of my ATM card and dashed off to the bank. When I arrived there, those waiting to use the ATM weren’t really much, yet the moderate number was just voluminous for me. I looked straight at my wristwatch and, lo and behold, it was fast ticking but the queue wasn’t moving, nay, wasn’t moving fast! Without delay, I left the queue and walked right into the bank, deciding to settle for the expensive, boring, over-the-counter service.

When I stepped out of the revolving door, into the banking hall, I simply froze! The queue inside was four times the one outside! “Well, even a buffoon would choose the queue outside,” I rationalized, as I slowly turned back to join those outside. Waiting for my turn was like waiting for a tortoise to complete a 100-meter dash in an Olympic Games! Why? Somehow it appeared the folks in front of me weren’t ATM-friendly. While some got themselves permanently glued to the ATM (probably because they couldn’t locate the amount they wanted to withdraw from the default list), a few others simply refused to step aside (probably because they were fascinated by the highlights of the everyday technology).

When it was finally my turn, it was clear I’d exhausted all my patience; and all I needed, at that time, was my money! I slotted in my encoded plastic card, obediently keyed in my four-digit, secret code, and typed the money I needed. As I stared at the ATM, impatiently hoping to receive my money, a soft, female voice uttered, “Please wait while your transaction is processing.” And on the spur of the moment, I mumbling retorted, “Must I wait, after all, I’ve done what I was supposed to do?” If the ATM had been a human, it probably would have replied back, “Yes, you must wait!” But fortunately, it didn’t. Instead, it handed me my money and I vanished from the scene…

As I reminisced on what to share with my readers on my birthday, the same statement: “Please wait while your transaction is processing,” popped up from the ATM of my mind. Quickly, I inscribed the words on my notepad and stared thoughtfully at them. Suddenly, I realised how powerful the statement was; not just as a precursor to the drawdown on my financial zeros, but also on the way I’d been going after some of my life aspirations. “If only we all could just pay attention to simple things in our environment,” I deduced, “we’d actually learn a great deal to make our lives better.”

Let me share with you what I learned from that simple statement. Just like me, many of you have loads of great dreams you have set for your lives. And a reasonable number of you have even sacrificed a lot to make those dreams a reality. For instance, you have painstakingly articulated your goals, plans, and strategies; you’ve also applied all the secrets of success you know; your life account shows that you’re capable of achieving the dreams; and yet things just refuse to budge! You look at your biological clock and it appears you’re just running out of time and nothing seems to be moving! Even if they’re moving, they’re moving way too slow! Well, the good news is that, you’re not alone―there are many others like you. And it’s just part of the beauty of life. But all I just want to tell you is this: “Please wait while your transaction is processing.”

You may think that all your efforts have been just a waste. But that’s false, because they’re not. Every effort you put into your dreams counts for you and it helps move you closer to attaining your dreams―no pun intended. The truth is that achieving great success in life doesn’t come with an add-and-stir methodology. There are no true shortcuts. In fact, there are times you just have to patiently wait for your seeds to go through their gestation periods. Just the same way a pregnant woman waits for the baby to fully form, so also you’re expected to wait for your dreams until they eventually come to pass. Unfortunately, thousands of great dreams have been lost during this period of waiting; while others have been sliced into chunks of mediocrity or conformity just because their bearers ran out of patient. If you must birth those great dreams, then it is highly necessary that you observe your waiting period. Your waiting period may be just as short as one hour, or it could be as long as one year or more. But whatever time label it carries, the truth is that it’s simply for your own good nonetheless. As you continue to apply true faith to your dreams, one thing is sure: Your success transaction is being processed somewhere on your behalf. All you need do is to keep doing what’s best for your dreams, and with time, your transaction would be completed and you’d get your blessings.

See your dreams and all your efforts as the process of withdrawing from the ATM of life. That is, pay the right price that your dreams require, ensure that your life account is not in red, and then don’t forget to obey the final instruction: “Please wait while your transaction is processing.” Who knows, you may just be within spitting distance of your great dreams. I can’t wait to see you succeed. I can’t wait to see you secure that job. I can’t wait to see you get that degree. I can’t wait to see you tie the knots with your heartthrob. I can’t wait to see you achieve that great dream. I can’t wait to see you celebrate.

Have a great day and remember it’s my birthday today, show some love.

Photo Credit: Hongqi Zhang (aka Michael Zhang) | Dreamstime.com