When it comes to patience, I turn into a 6 year old that is going to Disneyworld in two weeks. I start jumping up and down inside counting the seconds until it happens. Being an intense, driven person, patience has been a tough lesson for me. Right now seems to be a good time for everything good to happen.
Impatience seems to be hard-wired into us. Research shows that the human mind tends to choose immediate rewards over future gains. We love to see quick results.
We have an idea and act on it. When it doesn’t produce results fast enough, we quit. This is one of the top reasons for business failure.
We start a relationship and get frustrated when problems appear. We want to lose weight fast, make money fast, go from Monday to Friday fast.
We see people who look like “overnight successes” and compare our beginning to their middle and get discouraged.
Patience is a critical part of the success process. We need to understand and embrace the power of chilling out.
Look at a seed. You don’t see a plant, you see the possibility of a plant. If you plant the seed in soil and give it the resources it needs to grow, it will become a plant.
The seed needs to establish itself and must be surrounded by the right circumstances before it can fully develop.
Your goal or idea is a seed and has a specific gestation period. It will develop when it develops and not a moment sooner. If you keep digging up the seeds after you plant them, you will stop the process.
Sometimes, we dig up the seeds and plant different ones, hoping the new ones will grow faster. We never give the first seed the time to take root and grow.
In my twenties, I had a boss who would ask me this question when I became impatient. “How long does it take to make a 3 year old cat?” I would say, 3 months if it were my cat.” He would laugh and I would immediately relax and focus on the task at hand.
There is a process for our success. This works in business, relationships, fitness or any area of life. First we have a purpose and a vision. Then we take action. Then we allow it to grow and develop. Then we take more action and have more patience. Results follow.
The end result may be that we need to cut our losses and move on. But if we never give it a chance, we will never know.
Our destiny may be different than our original plan. But when we get there, we may realize its even better.
Let go of impatience now. Put your trust in your resourcefulness and in God’s plan for your life.
There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.
We need to honor the process.
Get clear on what it is you want, make a plan, take massive action and then wait for the universe to do its work. While you are waiting, you do your own work. Water, weed and take care of the garden.
A new study found that when we feel gratitude, we become more patient and value larger, long-term goals over smaller, near-term gains.
Next time you feel impatient, make a list of all the things you are grateful for in your life. Remind yourself that you are going through a process and have faith that it will work out, maybe not in the way you expected it, but exactly how it is suppose to.
Breathe in Faith. Breathe out patience. The best is yet to come!
