Do you have Patience?

Patience

This is a trait that comes into play in developing any 14 Focal Points of Success.

You've heard the more common sayings regarding patience: Patience is a virtue; All things come to those who wait; To everything there is a season . . . But lets take a look at a few that expand upon this theme. Get inspired, if you will.

How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees? ~William Shakespeare, Othello, 1604

One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life. ~Chinese Proverb

Patience is also a form of action. ~Auguste Rodin

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. ~John Quincy Adams

Patience is the companion of wisdom. ~St. Augustine

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience. ~George-Louis de Buffon

We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world. ~Helen Keller

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. ~Franklin P. Jones

Just the other day I was talking to a friend about success and the importance of perseverance or patience. Remember, success here means a particular mindset not what’s in your bank account. Many have been successful" but have lacked money or seen it come and go. Many have also struggled for some time before finding success. And this lengthy struggle is the key reason a great majority don’t succeed. It's the difficulties that cause problems. Many even get motivated but never get going, never mind keep going through the struggles. After the euphoria of the motivational seminar, workshop, coaching session, reading / viewing of inspiring books and tapes have worn off, what remains is you . Not that you shouldn’t get help from family, friends, peers, and gurus, but it is mostly up to you to keep yourself going (see focal point #3: Self-reliance).

Lets hear what the definitive expert on success, perseverance and patience has to say:

I discovered, from the analysis of over 25,000 people, that men who succeed in an outstanding way, seldom do so before the age of forty, and more often they do not strike their real pace until they a re well beyond the age of fifty" (emphasis added) (Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich).

The key phrase here is outstanding way"--not just men who succeeded but did so to a great degree. Now, this may have happened for a couple of reasons. One, they succeeded to a great degree because that was their main desire (and we know that desire, planning, focus, and specific outcomes or goals are necessary for outstanding success rarely does it just happen); two, they succeeded to a great degree because of the hard earned experience (read, failures) and understanding they garnered along the way (read, patience). Remember, you can have a lot of experience, but if you don’t learn from it, you've wasted a lot of good opportunities.

But another point to consider is that those who succeed greatly are oftentimes calculated risk takers, and they are also of the happily unemployable subset, meaning that their goal is so entrenched in them that they don’t have any backup plan." To risk one must have patience. Risk takers are committed to the point that they will work through financial, emotional, social, and other deficiencies to obtain their goal. They have burned their bridges and see no alternative except the prize they’ve got their eye on. And the how" is often not know but discovered along the way. Many have tried again and again (Abraham Lincoln failed in business twice and failed to get elected eight times) before meeting success. And those who achieved greatly were not afraid to fail greatly.

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."-- Robert F. Kennedy

Here's some additional quotes that will hopefully inspire you with persistence and patience.

"Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours."-- Dale Carnegie

"The ultimate reason for setting goals is to entice you to become the person it takes to achieve them."-- Jim Rohn

"Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes."-- Oscar Wilde

"There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they're necessary to reach the places we've chosen to go."-- Richard Bach

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."-- John Quincy Adams

"The reward of suffering is experience." Aeschylus

"There's only one thing that can guarantee our failure, and that's if we quit."-- Craig Breedlove

"Great minds have purposes; little minds have wishes. Little minds are subdued by misfortunes; great minds rise above them."-- Washington Irving

"Life is a series of experiences, each of which makes us bigger, even though it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and griefs which we endure help us in our marching onward."-- Henry Ford (emphasis added)

"Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal: my strength lies solely in my tenacity."-- Louis Pasteur

That’s quite a few quotes so let me summarize for you: to achieve great things is to risk great failure; true happiness never lies in staying within your comfort zone; failure is an option, its the best way to learn and we were put here to fail . . . and learn; failure is a part of the equation, learn from it; failure doesn’t mean quit, it means observe carefully your failures, learn and grow; if you don’t get out of your comfort zone you will remain small in mind, character, and effectiveness in helping others; it is not fear that is the problem but your lack of desire to embrace it and defeat it.

Let's get back specifically to patience. And if you know of patience, its purpose, how to manage it, use it to the best of your ability and understanding, as you continue to grow and use it, you will develop all that you have been looking for: inner strength, self-confidence, self-esteem, character, and attract people to you who will be inspired and guided by your inner goodness and greatness.

But be careful, if you don't have patience, life may force it upon you. Many feel that it is these situations that present us the best learning opportunities. Marc Lerner (interesting last name) is one of these people.

Lerner is a man who contracted multiple sclerosis and because of the disease was inspired to create an info-marketing business to help others with their personal difficulties. He helps veterans with post-traumatic syndrome, cancer and AIDS patients, the mentally ill homeless. Because of Lerner’s difficulty with poor vision, memory problems, and other handicaps, he feels that he has been on a journey that has taught [him] incredible lessons." And instead of being soured on life, he took a positive approach, slowed down, examined his situation and became empowered. You can read more about him and his program at Life Skills Inc. (lifeskillsinc.com).

I have known of others who have contracted serious diseases and gone back to simplifying their lives, reconnecting with passions and hobbies that spoke to these people of their much greater significance only after being slowed down by the disease.

I know a busy and successful woman who upon contracting cancer said, I dont have time for this." Her lack of understanding of what she has to learn from life may be the sole reason for her having to slow down."

Time and time and time again, I have seen people slowed down not only by disease but by divorce, disaster, unemployment, and so on, only to come to a greater understanding of priority and purpose. What is most important and why they are here.

Patience allows us to be as the Zen Buddhist who sees through the insignificant to that of the significant and eternal beyond. It is the conundrums, puzzles, even jokes, that the Zen Buddhist uses to look beyond the conventional to the truth of greater significance and longer lasting purpose. His main ally being patience.

If you find that you are stressed, impatient, unhappy, sad, remorseful, negative, shouting, cursing, complaining, finding only and solely the bad in life, you, my friend, need to sit and listen. Take the time to listen to the answers that are aching to come out to you, so powerful and necessary that they manifest themselves painfully if ignored, asking for release to greater understanding, peace and purpose.

In this world that has forgotten its humanity and depth of character as it wades beneath the din, the shouts of the huckster and his message of want, you must look to the peace within moments of patience to the answers brimming to come forth, those that if ignored, may take your life for lack of release.

Don't be one of those who has to be struck down in order to listen. I know. I have been there and back. I have been there and back. Listen now. Create the time for calm and peace. Embrace patience and listen to what you can learn.

Article by: Jeffery P. Brown.