Talk about Patience!
Sometimes, you just need to tell yourself what you need to be, or to do. In other words, it’s better to talk to yourself…than to listen to yourself.
A certain man observed a woman in the grocery store with a three-year-old girl in her cart. As they passed the cookie section, the little girl asked for cookies and her mother told her no. The little girl immediately began to whine and fuss. The mother said quietly, “Now Monica, we only have half of the aisles left to go through; don’t be upset. It won’t be long.” Soon, they came to the candy aisle and the little girl began to shout for candy. And when she was told she couldn’t have any, she began to cry. The mother said, “There, there, Monica. Only two more aisles to go, and then we’ll be checking out.” When they got to the check-out stand, the little girl immediately began to clamor for gum and burst into a terrible tantrum upon discovering there would be no gum purchased. The mother patiently said, “Monica, we’ll be through in five minutes and then you can go home and have a nice nap.” The man followed the mother and child out to the parking lot and stopped the woman to compliment her. “I couldn’t help noticing how patient you were with little Monica,” he said. Whereupon the mother said, “I’m Monica; my little girl’s name is Tammy.” Sometimes, we have to talk our self into patience.
If you want to lead yourself, then patience is an absolute. The same goes when leading people. We position ourselves with others to help propel them and set them in the right spot. We patiently watch the people we work with to see how challenges will bounce off them, to help us determine how to support them. Just as the teacher must have patience with the student, or the coach must have patience with the team, the boss must have patience with the employee. Knowing them and their skills, strengths, and talents will help you patiently lead them.
My son, Taylor, loves to play sports. He has coached soccer and basketball and taught other sports. Many weekends, we watched him, with some of the neighborhood kids, as he patiently instructed them on how to run routes, make plays, and throw, pass, and shoot a ball. He had a passion for the game and, in the midst of that passion, had the patience to teach others. Unlike his dad……
Lester Lewis Brown once stated, “A dream can be nurtured over years and years and then flourish rapidly. Be patient. It will happen for you. Sooner or later, life will get weary of beating on you and holding the door shut on you and then it will open and throw you a real party!”
Any of you who have ever dreamed of becoming something or envisioned an accomplishment, knows what it is like to be patient. As the old adage goes, “A boxing champion is not made in the ring, he is only recognized there.” Years of preparation will yield moments of glory. Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius, a vital component in grit, a crucial element of parenting, and an essential measure of leadership.
In the early years of our marriage, my wife and I were like most young couples. We wanted more than we can afford and didn’t have enough patience to save money to buy those things. We wanted furnishings for our house so, rather than saving money to buy something of quality, we bought cheap particle board furniture. As you know, particle board tends to fall apart quicker than solidly built furniture. In our endeavor to gain, we lost in the long run.
Our impatience only cost us more over time. As we grew and learned, we realized that if we wanted to purchase things that would last for a long time, we had to be patient and save our money.
In the mid 1800’s, the American poet, Josiah Gilbert Holland, so eloquently stated, “Let this be understood, then, at starting; that the patient conquest of difficulties which rise in the regular and legitimate channels of business and enterprise is not only essential in securing the success which you seek, but it is essential to that preparation of your mind, requisite for the enjoyment of your successes, and for retaining them when gained. So, day by day, and week by week; month after month, and year after year, work on, and in that process gain strength and symmetry, and nerve and knowledge, that when success, patiently and bravely worked for, shall come, it may find you prepared to receive it and keep it.”[i] I appreciate immensely how articulate he is in this message. People don’t speak like that anymore; they just don’t have the patience to do it.
What steps are you going to take today to become more patient?
[i] http://www.quoteland.com/author/Josiah-Gilbert-Holland-Quotes/1824/
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