PATIENCE!!!

The other day I spoke about some opportunities that have become evident in my life. While it is tempting to jump at every opportunity, there is still a place for patience. Patience is a virtue I admire so much. It says a lot about a person’s character. I’m very fortunate to have known inspiring role models who displayed patience, grace and class under pressure. Even when Life seems to throw them curve ball after curve ball, they remain standing tall and proud. Their mindset declares to the world, “I’m not going to let another temporary setback define who I am. I will keep going until I succeed!” In this age of instant everything – instant noodles, instant messaging, instant…you get the picture – it’s hard for people to cultivate patience. We’ve become so used to instant gratification that the idea of waiting has become somewhat alien. Do you know the old saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day?” This means great things take time to achieve. It took the people of the Roman Empire years to establish themselves as a world power. But with patience, perseverance, guts and political maneuverings (this one wasn’t pretty though!), their conquests spanned several nations. Art and philosophy flourished in that period. Their cities were the most beautiful in the world. We can take the Roman Empire analogy and apply it to ourselves. All of us want to succeed, but sometimes we are either too impatient or pessimistic that we end up negating all the hard work we’ve done so far. Speed and pessimism are success killers, and here’s why: Faster may be better, but not always. Completing tasks ahead of schedule is always a plus. You save time and money. But when you’re in too much of a hurry, the quality of your work may suffer. On the personal front, if you’re working towards achieving inner peace, you need to allow yourself time to reach your goal. We have to remember that certain things happen according to their own timetable. Professional success coach Jim M. Allen shares the same pragmatic view in his article “Success Coaching: Instant Success” published in Healthy Wealthy nWise: “(Success) comes to you on its own schedule as the result of consistent, persistent action.” My personal favorite line in his article is “Do what needs doing and let life take its own course.” I couldn’t agree more. Do what you have to do, and do them well. You might get results right away or you might not at all. But rather than panic, you need to sit back and wait. Do other things besides waiting. Ever heard of the expression “a watched pot never boils?” As funny as it sounds, things manifest themselves when we’re not focused on them. Pessimism attracts negative results. When you focus on what you don’t or can’t have, you build barriers that repel success. Your thoughts shape your subconscious. They determine results. Easther Sudharta echoed this in his Healthy Wealthy nWise article “How to Cultivate a Mindset of Abundance”: “For (people), unfortunately, especially with a mind focused on what they can’t have, this will likely always be true.” So how does one cultivate a mindset of abundance? Embrace the possibilities in this world, ignore the limitations and work on what you can do to start improving your life. There is no point on dwelling on the stumbling blocks. Focus on what you actually have and can do. Sometimes we need a boost to help us manage the more challenging aspects in our life. This is where coaching comes in. If you’re having performance issues at work, for instance, a good coach can really do wonders for your development. In his article “Coaching Vs. Managing”, also from Healthy Wealthy nWise, Craig Nathanson says, “Coaching helps to unlock a person’s potential to maximize their own performance and help them to learn vs. teaching them.” It helps him weigh the pros and cons of a situation, his own strengths and weaknesses, and map out solutions. Like the Roman general who led his troops to victory and rewrote history, a coach can help you rewrite your own life by boosting your critical thinking, giving you feedback when necessary and guiding you to attain results while respecting your need to be independent. The ancient Romans did not stop believing in their own abilities. They worked incessantly and did not let setbacks in battles stop them from winning the war. They patiently built their empire, and their persistence paid off. Modern age individuals like us certainly could take a page from history’s movers and thinkers on how to be on top of the world! Igniting the fire within. www.fraserstirling.co.nz