Process Makes Perfect: Everything Divine Takes Time

The Yin energy at our feminine core is process-oriented, not outcome-oriented. Despite what the world around us says, it’s about the journey. It’s about cycles, circles, wholeness.

That is one of the most important reasons for us to embrace and accentuate our Yin-ergy, or our unique feminine energy. It’s important for us to slow down and tune into the rhythmic cycles within and around us that modulate our moment-to-moment experiences as women, and focus on nurturing process. Bring presence to what you do. Being too focused on the outcome at the expense of fine-tuning the process underway can be truly destructive.

The old adage is “practice makes perfect,” but I believe that the key is not simply practice but process—engaging in something with our full attention and intention—that makes perfect. And when I use the word perfect, I don’t mean something flawless. I mean the divine incarnation of something that has gone from its beginnings to full bloom. An orange that has gone from flower to fruit and, now ripe, has swollen with sugars and fallen from the tree, bruised and seeping with nectar. Even bruised or scarred from the fall, it is perfect. From seed to fruit, full-circle perfection.

When we let process govern, and focus our energy on staying aligned with our intention, the outcome is perfection–grace. The glory is in trusting the journey.

My work is grounded in supporting women at the threshold of change. So often, I encounter women who jump around from project to project. First they have one idea they work on, then they switch to something else. Maybe the money isn’t coming right away, or they get bored, or they don’t want to put in the work but want the results. They end up with different things going on, spinning their wheels, but nothing that has gestated to full term.

If you’re constantly switching directions, scrambling for the quickest way to reach a goal, that sends a message out into the ethers that you’re simply not ready. You’re in fear mode, wanting the quickest solution to bring you comfort and security. The only way out is to go in, take the journey, and really do the work. Completion is a form of meditation and we live in a culture obsessed with what’s next, not what’s now. We must learn to trust the process. That can be challenging for most of us, because we are so used to manipulating the process, trying to hustle and push things to move in a certain direction to yield a specific outcome. We are so used to forcing things to fit into our vision of perfection and accelerating processes that we should leave alone. Everything has its own divine timing, and it’s not always in accordance with our schedules.

Sacred timing is all about readiness. When you are ready to move to the next level, you will be catapulted there, and not necessarily when you want it. Things don’t happen when the time is right but when the timing is ripe. There is a timing that the universe works with that has nothing to do with our schedules, our plans, or our agendas. Instead of trying to force things to move in a certain direction and expedite something that may take time to develop, just allow yourself to surrender to the process. Surrender is a powerful gift to that frees you from the tyranny of expectation. Surrender is a radical act of self-care.

When I work with expectant moms who are anxious to deliver their babies, I remind them that it’s a process and babies are born on their birthdays, not when it’s convenient for us. Remember that human gestation takes 40 weeks, not 4 days, and process makes perfect. Everything takes time, and your time will come. Whatever it is that you are patiently awaiting, whatever you are working towards. Whether you are waiting to meet your life partner, waiting to make partner at your firm, or looking for the perfect partner to launch your new business with, do your part and leave the rest to spirit to take care of for you.

Honoring the universe’s timing, however, does not mean sitting idly by. It means we commit ourselves to moving with intention. There are things we can do to move ourselves down the road toward achieving our ultimate goal. And part of that includes doing nothing—letting it happen rather than making it happen.

Allow yourself to anchor yourself deeper into your work and less into your timelines and social feeds. Identify what it is you truly want to accomplish and call that energy toward you; summon it forth. Do the work so that when the timing is right, you will indeed be ready to receive. You will have the space and capacity to receive and hold on to exactly what you asked for.

It is your sacred dharma to uncover the lessons deeply encoded along your path. That means doing what you can to make this mission, this life’s purpose, this vision, your priority. This means dethroning the notion that you have to constantly launch, produce, and outwardly express your work to be validated, to be celebrated, or to be worthy. You were born worthy. The journey is meant to be one of joy, of purpose and of process. So take your sweet time!