Being thankful for what’s here doesn’t mean giving up on what’s coming. It makes the wait easier.

Wanting more and valuing what you already have are not in competition, though it often feels as though appreciating the present would cancel your ambition. It does not. What gratitude changes is the quality of the stretch in between, which is where you spend nearly all your time. Hunger that cannot stand its own waiting room tends to burn out before it arrives anywhere.

Name one thing you are working towards and one thing that is already good. Keep both in view this week. When the waiting gets heavy, use the second to make the first bearable rather than treating it as a betrayal.