Develope your Patience. Patience Always Pays

Developing Patience

  As a trainer, I always emphasize on the importance of intelligent program design, skills development and overall grooming.

 We as trainers are always looking to find better ways to solve the life skills related problems. It isn't uncommon to spend several hours each week reading new research and rereading old research. This thirst for knowledge should be commended, as knowledge is a powerful weapon. I'll never criticize anyone who is eager to learn and improve skills. Yet, as we search for new and improved methods for developing skills, we often forget to share seemingly obvious advice with them.

Nobel Prize winner Andre Gide said “The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say - because they were too obvious."

Abiding by these words, it is imperative to communicate the importance of patience. We've all know well that patience is a virtue, but very few actually live by these words.

Coaches and mentors regularly preach the importance of hard work, but few share such passion when stressing the importance of patience.

Patience Is a Virtue

Merriam Webster defines patient as steadfast despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity. Patience is more than a virtue, it is a powerful weapon. It makes you listen all. Famous novelist Leo Tolstoy (perhaps best known for War and Peace) summarized the importance of patience with the following:

"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."

 Without patience and time, don't expect to accomplish anything.

Planting a Seed

If you plant an apple seed today, don't expect to eat fresh apples next week. You must be patient if you wish to produce worthwhile results. Don't expect to accomplish anything significant in a few days or weeks.

    The good news is that patience is a mental skill, one that can be practiced and eventually mastered, even by the most impatient person.  Usually we hear about exercising patience as it pertains to something else, like raising children or starting a business. The idea of cultivating patience for its own sake gets little attention, but there are some strong, compelling reasons for doing so. Impatience makes us lose our perspective, which hinders our power to create what we want and makes us vulnerable to attracting more of what we don't want. And losing patience constitutes a misuse of spiritual power.

      Think about it: most of us wouldn't even dream of handing over our innate power.

·        Impatience also takes its toll on our bodies, because it generates stress.

·        Lack of patience harms the social side of life too: it strains relationships, causes discord in group situations and sets a bad example.

·        And impatience often produces haste which, we are told, makes waste.

      Patience, on the other hand, empowers us at all levels. Cultivating it requires the desire to change and a good strategy, as well as discernment and persistence. When you find yourself on the verge of losing patience, try one or more of the following techniques.

o   Get real. Adjust your perceptions to the reality of the situation at hand. Don't work yourself into lather over nothing.

o   Resist the temptation to emulate the demanding behaviors of impatient friends, relatives and coworkers.

o   Look within to understand why you react impatiently to certain situations.

o   Dig deeply if necessary, because appearances can be deceptive.

o   Impatience may flow from some other dynamic, like inflexibility, lack of empathy.

o   Once you've discovered the cause, identify the interior and exterior factors involved, and then mentally weigh each one to distinguish what's truly important from what's not.

o   Determine where your attachment lies, then devise a plan for wresting yourself from its grip.