We’ve all been there. Those times when everything should be working out but it’s just not. Greatness seems right around the corner, only to be delayed by yet another roadblock. What do you do?

You wait, and wait, and wait…

But waiting is so boring. Most stories deal with the boring, waiting parts by skipping over them. Whether it’s a montage of several months passing in the movie, or a simple statement “After several months of anxious waiting, the answer arrived…” in a book, writers have the luxury of skipping over the boring bits. We don’t, we have to tough them out. And that sucks.

No one wants to watch, read, or live through the boring parts. Unfortunately we often don’t have a choice and life makes us wait for the good parts of our lives to come about.

The good parts don’t just happen

When you feel stalled and waiting, it can be real tempting to give in to more waiting. Doing nothing sometimes feels great. In the end though, the good part of your story won’t come without action.

Your secret to ending the waiting, and being less bored, is acting.

Stop waiting and start preparing

Do something, even if it doesn’t feel like it matters. The main character in a good story is always moving forward, always trying to accomplish something, even if it’s not amazing at the moment. He or she is simply trying to get to the next step.

The next step doesn’t have to be monumental, in fact it will probably seem prosaic in comparison to your grand passions or goals. That’s okay. Your duty is only to keep moving. To keep on the path and take the next step.

But what if I don’t know what the next step is?

The one thing about creating a great story is that the main character always wants something, usually intrinsic to the human experience. Whether it’s a better station in life, a beautiful woman, a husband to love them, or simply to live, they are constantly seeking after a goal. What’s your goal? What do you want?

What you want can be the hardest question to answer. We want so many things but the real trick is narrowing down all the many things we desire to the essence.

What do you want more than anything?

Once you find that, proceed on

After you find the thing that you want more than anything, the next step should come naturally. The choice then becomes clear, do you pursue that goal or wait? Do you play an active role in your life or do you wait for things to happen to you. Are you the hero or heroine of your story or merely a background character that responds to other heroes?

Don’t wait, push forward

When things seem to be struggling in your life, when nothing appears to be moving forward, evaluate what you are doing:

• Are you acting, not waiting for things to happen?
• If you don’t know what to do, do you have a goal?
• If you don’t have a goal, what do you want more than anything else in the whole world?
• Once you know what you want, what is the next step?
• When you know the next step, do that, as hard as it might be, then the next, and the next…

Your Life, Your Story

You are living your life, minute by minute. The question is HOW will you choose to live it? Will you take an active role in your living, or will you sit back and let life, circumstances, or even other people have a greater effect on your life than you.