Over the last few weeks, I’ve delved into “Things That Get You Stuck”.  The first one was distractions.  The second was discouragement.  The third one is delays.  At some point during your journey to achieve something great, you will experience a delay.  The Merriam Webster definition of “delay” is the act of postponing, hindering, or causing something to occur more slowly than normal.  I remember when my husband and I were starting a teen mentoring nonprofit several years ago.  It took forever, it seemed, to “recruit” our first mentee.  We spent hours brainstorming ideas, marketing our plan to the community and parents, talking to community leaders and even after several months, we still had little interest.  It seemed as though we had experienced some major delays and things were occurring much slower than normal.  However, we kept doing and making strides and didn’t allow distractions, discouragement or delays to stop our efforts.  Eleven years later, I look back and see all that we have accomplished even with delays.

Many people give up when they experience a delay because many times it feels like a denial.  But delays can quickly turn into victories if we stay the course and are persistent.  If we don’t get derailed, we will win.  Think about how many times you’ve faced a delay or hindrance.  How did you respond?  Did you persist or did you give up?  Challenge yourself to press through the discouragement and keep going.

Remember, many years passed from the time Abraham received the promise from God that he would become a father to the promised child to the time when he had Isaac.  Delays are often a part of God’s divine plan and serve a greater purpose.

When faced with a delay or obstacle, here are some pointers to help you keep going:

• Change your perspective by finding the good in the situation.
• If there’s a period of waiting for an answer or waiting for something to happen, use that time to continue to prepare for where you are going.
• Be persistent by continuing to do the things you know to do.
• Keep praying and expecting your situation to change any day.
• Tune out the extra noise of naysayers and those who do not understand where you are going.

Although you cannot control delays, you can control your response to them by moving forward.

~Coletta Jones Patterson

Coletta is an author, life coach, business executive and weekly blogger.  Connect with Coletta at info@moveu4ward.com.