⏳ The most powerful people alive are excellent at waiting. Are you?

Hey Reader,

You can order an Uber in 2 minutes, a meal in 15, and swipe for a date in seconds. Your favorite show drops all at once, and your news feed refreshes before you finish reading it. Modern life has been engineered so you never have to wait for anything.

And then, in the middle of all of it, the fastest-growing game on the internet made you stop after five minutes. One puzzle. One shot. See you tomorrow. No exceptions.

By making you wait 24 hours for your next turn, Wordle was an accidental lesson in one of the most powerful and endangered human skills: the ability to wait for something, sit with that waiting, and let it build.

Sometimes the wait is the most powerful part.

⏳ The People Who Waited — and Won

Consider Christopher Nolan. His masterpiece, Inception, took 10 years to write because he needed to become the person capable of writing it.

He put it this way:

"Every time I finished a film and went back and looked at it, I had changed as a person. The script was different to me. And, eventually, who I was as a writer, as a filmmaker, and what the script needed to be, all these things coincided."

Min Jin Lee spent 28 years writing Pachinko. Midway through, after spending four years in Japan interviewing the people her book was actually about, she realized she'd "been wrong about everything" — and started over. The book became a bestseller and a major Apple TV+ series. The version she almost published would have been a lesser book.

🌱 My Own Slow Unfolding

I'm not a genius like Nolan or Lee. But I am a late bloomer, and the greatest accomplishments of my life have come from waiting well.

I was 35 when I got married. I had my first child at 39, after a brutal multi-year wait of trying and failing to conceive. Now, I can't imagine it unfolding any other way.

I didn't start my career as a writer and leadership coach until my mid-30s. And even once I knew what I wanted, I waited longer — studying and practicing for two years before securing my first book deal. That slow start is why I can move fast now.

And here I am, waiting again. I'm 40 weeks and 5 days pregnant, sitting with the particular restlessness of a due date that has come and gone. Her room is ready. The homebirth supplies are procured.

And while I'm antsy, I keep reminding myself: waiting is a noble art.

Waiting makes us more patient, more powerful, and mentally strong.

🧠 What Science Says About Waiting

You've probably heard of the Marshmallow Test (Stanford, 1970). A four-year-old sits alone with a marshmallow: eat it now, or wait and get two. The children who waited went on to have higher SAT scores, lower rates of addiction, better health, and lower BMI — decades later. Patience isn't just a virtue. It's a competitive advantage.

And here's what's even better: it can be trained.

Research shows that smokers who spent two weeks strengthening their self-control through completely unrelated exercises — handgrip training, avoiding sweets — were later more successful at quitting than those who didn't.

Every small act of waiting, resisting, or holding back isn't just a one-time win. It's a rep.

🎯 Your Mission

Your mission, if you choose to accept it: practice waiting on purpose.

The next time you're waiting — for a friend, the subway, a call-back — resist the urge to pull out your phone. Just be with it. Remind yourself that you're building resilience, mental fortitude, and the kind of patience that compounds. You're doing a rep.

Remember, the smallest shifts have the greatest impact.

Glad you're here, 🗺️✨ Liz

PS – I had the best time hosting a live podcast recording on AQ and the year of the Fire Horse with my dear friend Sophia Li. Thank you for everyone who came! Stay tuned for the full episode coming soon.

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