Patience. Hm. I will admit to you flat out that this is not an area of my life I have had a lot of success with. I am, in general, a very Type-A personality, OCD to the max, and extremely task oriented. If something can be done, it should be done as quickly and effectively as possible. If someone were to list any of the attributes they see in me, to my own shame, patience would be pretty far down the list. So how does this affect us as people, as business owners, as travelers, as seekers of adventure?
We’ve all heard the phrase “patience is a virtue”, right? But is is any more than that? Are we born with all the patience we’ll ever have, or is it a skill that can be learned, honed and developed? Many argue that patience is not a skill in itself, but something that is exhibited in proportion to your underlying moral standards. Do you get impatient waiting for someone else to finish a project that you would have finished days ago? Are you impatient waiting for your next raise, or your next sale, or your next trip? Do you find yourself always looking forward to the next big thing, the next big project, the next big breakthrough?
Watching the clock….
Perhaps we all need to look inward and see where that impatience comes from. Do we value our time over someone else’s time? Do we think we deserve more that we actually do, or our needs deserve to be prioritized above others?
Not only does patience help us exhibit overall a much higher level of behavior to those around us, it can slows us down to think about and make decisions properly instead of rushing into things that are not well thought out. One of the greatest investors of our time remarked about the stock market :
"The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient." - Warren Buffett
In other words, faster isn’t always better. Sooner isn’t always advantageous, quicker isn’t always more lucrative. So take a few deep breaths, slow down, look at whatever situation you’re facing and have a bit of patience. It will help you plan better, think more clearly, and make wiser decisions - in business, in travel and in life.
