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The growing pains of being “in the meantime” is a rough and tough place to slosh around.

It’s a familiar feeling, but that doesn’t make it any easier to be there. Even if I’m doing my inner work of visioning, meditating, writing action-oriented lists, and making bold moves to actualize my life’s work, it still feels like I’m flailing around doing the dog paddle in the middle of space between the two trapeze rings.

I’m neither here nor there personally or professionally, and as hard as I’m trying to move forward, self-doubt and insecurity can throw icy cold water on my spirit of optimism and hope in a blink.

While I know rationally that none of my “in the meantime” experiences are permanent nor spiritually true, sloshing around in them is just no fun. As my optimistic spirit begins to darken with frustration and disappointment, being in the meantime is a crazy-making internal experience.

Ralph Waldo Emerson loosely said, “It’s not the destination, people. It’s the journey.”

When I hold his wise words close to my every breath, it keeps my inner torture at bay. For the most part, I think Mr. Emerson is right. The journey toward possibility has the potential to create delicious moments.

The journey is the soul food that keeps me going and the soul food that gives me hope and eternal optimism.

On the other hand, there are times when I have the urge to yell at him at the top of my lungs about his “journey-destination” thing.

Really, Waldo? Perhaps it was easy for you to say that your journey was more important than your destination. From the bio I read, it was evident that your poetry, humility, wisdom, and life-changing philosophy caught on with the masses. It sounds like you achieved many of your destinations.

How was your journey getting there? Did you have complete emotional support? Was there enough money behind you to feed your dreams and get them out to the world? How was your stamina? Your health? Were there times when you experienced self-doubt, fear, and insecurity? Did you have a public relations manager and a marketing guru, or did you create all your projects and careers on a financial shoestring, too?

Were the people with whom you were closest emotionally whole and without any dysfunctional issues? How about you? Were you ever discouraged along the way? What were your weaknesses and limitations, and how did you transcend them?

Think about the rest of us, Waldo. Where’s your empathy? I agree that the journey is entrancing, but after all the work I have been putting into different parts of my life, I ache to solidify a conscious sense of arrival, Mr. Emerson.

I’d give anything to have all my hard work pay off as an author.

I’d give anything to heal the people I love once and for all.

I’d give anything to know that I had a part in creating a world of loving consciousness.

In the meantime, I am doing the best I can. I’m a living, breathing, yearning, imperfect, frustrated, disappointed, creative, angry, loving, and lovable human being, and it’s all okay.

Step by step and breath by breath I am continuing the journey, and step by step and breath by breath I am continuing to keep my eyes on the prize of each destination. I will keep going until and beyond my final breath. My arms are wide open to the magical mysteries of the unknown that dance toward me unexpectedly without any nose-to-the-grindstone laborious planning.

I still believe in magic fairies and fairy dust lighting my way.

I still believe in the mystery of synchronicity.

I still believe in the mystical magic of the unknown.

I still believe in dreams and following my heart toward them.

I still believe in the lyrics of “The Impossible Dream” from Man of La Mancha.

Through all the muck, discouragement has been one of my favorite teachers for catapulting me into new levels of personal growth and transformation, and discouragement is often joined by my other favorite teachers: frustration, disappointment, anger, and pain. And that’s not all.

We have the potential to evolve and grow from inside out with the appearance of six additional teachers who are here to lovingly challenge our agitation, impatience, and pain.

May I present:

Patience. Trust. Faith. Self-Belief. Determination. Letting Go.

These 11 teachers urge me to live, dream, heal, love, and never give up.

>> Are we determined, persistent, resilient, and patient enough to never give up on our visions, goals, and dreams?

>> Can we put our trust and faith in an Energy greater than us?

>> Can we believe in ourselves despite naysayers or algorithms that falsely label how successful we are today?

>> Can we let go of expectations and outcomes?

>> Can we flow with the gentle spirit of simple breath, self-love, and the art of beingness?

>> When our inner rhythm shifts to new momentum, can we meet that calling?

>> Can we lift ourselves up toward that familiar fire-in-the-belly ambition of passionate doingness?

>> Can we take a confident breath of love and hope, vowing once again to make a positive difference in the world?

My answer is yes.

My sudden insight? In reality, there is no such thing as “in the meantime.”

Whatever stage we find ourselves in, we are continually growing, learning, and sprouting new seeds of self-realization and mindful enlightenment. Let’s accept ourselves and our lives “as is.”

We can choose to be comfortably uncomfortable living with unresolved longing and ambivalent pregnant pauses of mulling, resting, emotional paralysis, meditating, praying, quietly creating, forgiving, and human beingness.

We can also choose to be comfortably uncomfortable with all the wishy-washy feelings that success, failure, and shades in between bring us.

Life is about self-acceptance and embracing the flow as is. It’s about living with grace, dignity, self-love, and self-respect, and it shines even more brightly when empathy, compassion, determination, and resilience enter our soul of souls.

Most of all, life is about letting go and not trying to push the river.

Emerson also said, “Trust Yourself.” I agree. Trust yourself and trust the invisible guidance of the universe. Trust living “in the meantime,” too.

What if we are experiencing this discomfort for a reason and what if its presence is a gift? Instead of resisting it, let’s treasure it. Unwrap it. Listen to its whispers. Be patient. Don’t fight it. Just float in the now and accept what is.

What if life’s journey and growing pains are the final destinations of human longing, the need for challenges, and the pursuit of finding the light within the darkness? Let’s celebrate being “in the meantime.” At least we’re here.

To read more about my views on success, money, spirituality, and living in the meantime, please take a look at my article, “Spiritual Currency and Making Money. Redefining what Success Really Is.”