PATIENCE IS A BATTLE WITH THYSELF
Whenever I think about patience I have a visceral reaction to it. The same kind of reaction I used to have when I was a kid and I asked my mom to buy me a toy. She would always say “I’ll get it for you for your birthday.” Since my birthday was at the end of November, chances were that I’d have to wait for most of the year. That sucked but as a child there was nothing I could do about it other than wait. Back to present day, the concept of patience is still associated with passiveness for me, a “stay put and wait” kind of deal. Something I learned early in my life is that if you sit and wait for what you want to come, you’ll wait forever. You have to work hard for it. You have to “earn it.” In many ways, that’s why being patient is the last thing I want to do when it comes to chasing my dreams, and funnily enough, it seems to be a trend amongst people of my generation. I have yet to meet a person that would say “I’m a patient person.” Most of the people I know will immediately say “hell no!” instead.
Patience is a battle.
What we all need to realize is that patience is the greatest tool there is and patience is not passiveness. Patience is an ongoing battle against your worst self. There’s a monkey inside of all of us who gets triggered very easily and we have to fight with him everyday to get to where we want to be in life. The monkey is lazy, insecure, aggressive, rude, selfish, ignorant and well, impatient. That monkey doesn’t like to work out, that monkey loves Netflix, that monkey is all about instant gratification and that monkey gets easily addicted. Being patient is to learn to train that monkey. Being patient is to make yourself ignore it. Patience is the only road to achieving discipline and self control, which are the monkey’s worst enemies.
When you think about it, any good habit takes an effort. Any bad habit requires the opposite. And if you really want to accomplish something, you need to bring your a-game, meaning that you will get there only by doing your best everyday. Building good habits (and discipline) requires patience. It’s all about consistently tackling small goals day in and day out without losing your patience, even when you see no results in the short term. I like to think everyday as a battle. A battle where I’m fighting against resistance and where I want to see myself victorious everyday. It’s empowering. And it’s a great metaphor for a passionate, hot headed soul like mine. The trick though is to remember that these battle are not won by trowing the most punches. They are won with consistency. You win by training, by learning, by strategizing and by executing.
At the end the battle is won even by learning when you shouldn’t be fighting at all. Now, I want to let you go, and the one lesson I want you to take out of this is that being patient takes a lot of strength, the kind of strength that wins all battles… but you have to keep fighting.
