Patience

I've always struggled with patience. In my mind, if I've put the work in and done my due diligence in planning, I should see the outcome in a relatively short period of time. The problem is that things rarely work out this way. Patience requires that you take the long game approach and if you don't prepare yourself for it, you might get disappointed really quickly and begin wondering why you put forth the effort in the first place. In a world where immediate gratification is the modus operandi, patience is a long lost art form that needs to have an overwhelming comeback, but how do we capture it? While there is no one easy answer, we can start by understanding that nothing we seek as important will come easy.

I'm sure that we can all identify those things that come easy to us. It could be public speaking, writing, art, athleticism, or any number of talents that we have been graced with. These are the things that we are naturally gifted at and we don't have to work too hard to find success. For some of us, however, those things are few and far between, so we have to continually grind it out and practice what we want to become. We have to struggle through the highs and lows of learning things that may come easy to others and we have to fight through the comparison game of why we can't do something that comes so naturally to those around us. It torments us because we feel like we are working so hard and there should be a payoff at some point. For many, it is at this point where many decide to give up instead of practicing patience. As someone once said, "Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience."

We could all use a little patience. Whether it is with ourselves and our own struggles or those around us who may be struggling in their own right. Practicing patience is good for the soul and is something that is part of the human experience if we will just be open to it. It requires us to stop for just a few seconds and reflect on whether or not our lack of patience is going to help or hurt the situation we are currently facing. Before we say or do something that we may regret later, we need to ask ourselves if the situation we are facing requires an immediate solution or if it would serve us better with just a little more time. After all, patience is a virtue, and we all could serve ourselves and others better if we just took a little more time to let things play out. We just need to be patient.

#FORWARD #FORGE