Patience is so difficult to abide by in many situations. Yet it’s the underlying lever of persistence. Where effort is continually applied and then waiting for something to break through.
Our need for clarity, certainty, and our addiction to instant everything using our smartphones are the enemy of patience. Our ego’s need to be proven right, also pushes against the silence of patience waiting for its turn. The younger we are, the more patience is too much effort for too little perceived gain. As we age, it begins to reverse itself where patience is valued with much to gain.
Patience can be delusional and harmful when what we are waiting for can never be achieved. It happens to all of us, especially when we ask someone for their advice and never listen or act, in a different way, given their counsel.
Quick, intense emotions blind us to the value of using patience to regain our balance before reacting. Too much work or effort also blinds us to the patience we need to achieve something we have never done before but aspire to realize.
Understanding patience, while easy to comprehend, is quite difficult to practice because of the time component of its impact. Patience always makes time go slower while today’s world is built on speed.
We hide patience behind fancy terms like long-term thinking and five year plans. We lose track of patience when we only see the end and not the next day that we have to live. Its value always remains hidden to us when we dismiss the need to put in the work daily without seeing a payoff for days, weeks or maybe years to come.
Don’t make these same mistakes. For with patience, much in your life can happen. It just won’t occur on your time schedule. And that’s ok, as long as we get close to what we dreamed for so long as it finally becomes our reality.