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| Have Patience – the Correct Way |
Have
patience - introduction
Are you in a hurry to get somewhere? Are you hurting your
chances of getting there by being impatient? Are you being patient with your
dreams or mistaking passivity for patience?
Being patient is a necessity to a life of achievement
because it is the nature of things and the law of time that you cannot
immediately reap where you have sown. Anything worthwhile takes time to grow
and mature. So your dreams too require this time of nurturing and growth. It is
during this time, when the fruits of your labour may not be evident, that your
patience is most required.
Have
patience – don’t just wait
There is a proverb that goes “all good things come to those
who wait.” It is a well-known saying which holds a lot of truth. But, I have
come to learn, it is a saying that is flawed, in that it is incomplete.
Waiting alone is not enough. Good things do not come to
those who wait. Good things come to those who wait, but who also actively do
something about their situation whilst they are waiting. If waiting was all it
took to have good things in life everyone could achieve their dreams because
waiting is effortless. Good things rarely come effortlessly.
Have
patience – passivity is not patience
Passivity is a habit that must never be confused with
patience. In this country passivity is one of our biggest weaknesses. This
manifests itself not only in personal lives without any real direction and
conviction, but also in our politics, and our moral and ethical standards.
Patience is not passively waiting for things to change. “That is laziness. But
to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience.”
So if you are simply being passive and patiently waiting for
a brighter tomorrow you need to think twice about your strategy. Patience goes
hand in hand with consistent action. It is easy to be patient when you are
doing something about your situation because then you are in control and you
are able to determine the progress made despite the seeming lack of tangible
results.
Have
patience – avoid procrastination and fear
Linked to passivity is procrastination and fear. George
Jackson said “Patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it's cowardice.”
This is very true in that quite a few people actually fear doing something and
hide in the assumption that they are being patient and simply waiting for the
right time to come in order to do something. But, we all know, that
procrastination is a thief of time. It should never be confused with being
patient.
Have
patience – a painful lesson
In the book “Think and Grow Rich” Napoleon Hill tells a
story with the title “three feet from gold.” It’s about a man who found a piece
of land that had promising gold deposits, After convincing some relatives and
friends he managed to get enough money to buy the machinery necessary to mine
the gold ore.
But a few weeks later, having initially hit some gold
deposits, he lost the vein of gold ore. Desperately, he and his colleagues
drilled to try and find the vein of gold deposits again. But to no avail.
Eventually, after digging many weeks, he decided to quit.
He sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred
dollars and went back home. Luckily, the junk man was smart. He got a mining
engineer to come and look at the mine. The engineer made some calculations and
showed the junk man that the person he bought the machinery from had quit just
three feet away from where the gold deposits were. Had he continued digging he
would have found the gold. The junk man had truly struck it rich and made
millions of dollars in ore from the mine.
This story illustrates very well the Chinese proverb that
“One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience
may ruin a whole life.”
Have
patience – handle setbacks and temporary defeat
Setbacks and defeats will come on the journey to achieving
your dreams. At such times, patience is what is required. Carl Jung observed
that “Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word
happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far
better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.”
Do not ever let life’s up and downs make you lose track of
your goals and panic, as the gold mine owner did. In that panic he missed to do
one simple thing that could have changed the entire outcome of his misadventure.
That was simply to get a professional opinion from a qualified person. You too,
could be that close to success.
Have
patience – don’t look to others
But do not judge your success based on other peoples
success. One of the things that make people impatient is seeing other people
getting ahead faster than they are. This is especially true if they started off
at the same time and with the same resources and opportunities. A common
example is people that went to college or university together. Commonly, there
is uneasiness when someone is moving ahead in their career and achieving more
things. At such times it is easy to leave your plan and seek a “shortcut” to
success.
But this should not be the case. In order to have patience
it is necessary that you know what your plan is and where you are headed as an
individual. There are many ways to achieve any one thing. The trick is to stick
to your own plan when others around you seem to be getting ahead much faster
than you. Yes, they may be enjoying more success than you, but you know nothing
about where they are ultimately headed. Why should your path and your direction
be determined by what others are doing? Be patient with your own plans and your
own dreams.
Have
patience - conclusion
Most of all learn to be patient with yourself. You are not
perfect and you will make mistakes along the way. But understand that you are
on the right track and headed in the right direction, however many mistakes and
setbacks you may encounter on the way. And remember; don’t just look forward to
reaching the destination. Enjoy the journey too.
You are all you can be. Go on and be it.
