Patience: the one trait that can be used to easily differentiate between a child and an adult.
Impatience is almost entirely expected of kids isn’t it? Are we there yet? I want this toy NOW! Immediate gratification was what they liked and expected. Unfortunately, we see this same trait in some adults today as well. I want to make some fast money NOW! I want to lose this weight NOW! I want the perfect life NOW!
What these types of adults fail to realize is that patience is a refined sense of confidence knowing that you WILL get what you want. This quality will help you attain your dreams in three ways.
Cultivating patience gets you out of the instantaneous gratification model of thinking.
No great achievement was ever created instantaneously by anybody at anytime. Great achievement is always a function of patience.
Impatience often makes us do rash things and engage in poor decisions because we didn’t take the time to gather the correct information and resources. For example, let’s say we have two car companies. One who just wants to get a car out as fast as possible to make a quick buck, but another which takes the time to gather the best information, the best parts, and the best engineers to produce a quality car. Sure, the first company would be the one to make money sooner, but in the long run, which car company is going to generate the most profit? The second one by a HUGE margin. The patience the second car company displayed resulted in a quality product, which then domino effected toward huge future profits as consumers readily saw the difference between the two car companies and their products.
When you’re patient, you know that the achievement of your goal will take time, which is the proper and healthy way to view it. Because it will take time, you know that hard work is going to be involved. You know and expect that setbacks will occur. When it’s all said and done, when all the cards are on the table, you know that you will inevitably achieve what you set out to accomplish and that you will have done it with quality.
You see impatient people embracing the instantaneous model of gratification all the time, especially with kids today. They are always asking how they can make money quick and easy. Some of these kids will probably engage in criminal behavior in order to get the money quick and easy. Those kids who are patient will do the work to get the money and when they do, they’ll find themselves in a more favorable position because of it.
Take for example the kid who mows the neighbor’s lawn for a measly 5 bucks. If he’s patient enough to do a good job, that neighbor may be so impressed with his work that he refers him to another neighbor, and another, till the kid starts generating more cash than he did at that one job. Another kid who’s impatient and just wants the five bucks will do a mediocre job, and will have missed out on the future opportunities the patient kid was given. All because he was impatient with his work.
Another common example is a person who wants to lose a lot of weight. The quick and easy way would be to have surgery, but we know that can bring along with it a whole host of complications and consequences. The patient way is to exercise daily, get the correct diet information, eat healthy, etc., and sure it might take months or even years, but in the end, you get quality results. You have more self-discipline, more self confidence, great eating and exercising habits, things that you would NOT have gotten had you taken the instantaneous gratification way out.
Patience gets you into the quality model of thinking. Look around you and see what has gone into the making of the computer you are using, the chair you’re sitting in, the books on your shelves. Realize how much patience has gone into developing these products. We correctly correlate quality with patience. Patience implies that works needs to be done, and that work will take time, which is the best attitude to have.
Cultivating patience makes you aware of your surroundings and allows for breakthroughs to occur.
Impatience is directly correlated with narrow-mindedness and gets the mind to focus in on the negative side of things. If you’re patient, you become open minded and you see all the positive opportunities all around you. Those who are impatient in line are often seen huffing and puffing, being exasperated that they must wait, while those who are patient view this opportunity with an open mind and see it as a chance to strike up a conversation with a person nearby, which may lead to a new network contact or friend.
Going back to the example of the kid mowing the lawn, his patience in getting the job done with quality may make him aware of other areas to generate money. While taking time to mow the lawn, he may become aware of weeds in the garden that he can pull or the dilapidated fence he can paint new again. Had he been impatient and just wanted the money, he would’ve missed out on those opportunities to generate more money. Because he has the patience in knowing that the work that needs to be done will take time, he becomes aware of his surroundings and can leverage that to create breakthroughs.
Cultivating patience makes you see everything in the big picture.
Patience gives you the ability to place everything along your journey in the big picture. You see the lessons that you learn and you become aware of how they can help you. In other words, you leverage every experience along the way and maximize its use. Because you see things in the big picture, you anticipate roadblocks instead of being surprised by them, which makes them easier to deal with. When you become impatient, you think short term and quit and miss that moment where everything clicks together.
For example, if your dream is to open up a pizza shop, but you get rejected by several investors, you take each rejection and place it in the big picture. You know it’s going to take time and beacuse of that, you learn something from each rejection. If you didn’t have patience, you’d probably quit at the very moment where you would’ve had all the necessary information to make the next presentation to investors a successful one.
Cultivating patience supports the belief that you know you’ll get what you want in due time. It’s the bridge connecting your vision to your end game and without it, nothing of great achievement will ever be accomplished.
