I remember when I was about 16 years old sitting on the edge of my grandmother’s bed and asking her how to cultivate patience. I laugh just thinking about it because the conversation was so sweet and I have such a vivid picture of that moment in my heart but I can’t for the life of me imagine what I was so impatient about at that time in my life. But it’s the feeling I remember well because I have felt it so many times in my life since then. The urgency. 

Patience is an incredible superpower.

Patience speaks of confidence and faith in the journey. When we can cultivate patience we acknowledge the inevitability of the outcome – now THAT’S huge! Patience says “I know that I am on the right track and even if this doesn’t come to fruition something even greater will come of it.” Looking back on every failure or fumble in my businesses, in my relationships, in my personal development, this has most certainly been true. If I could have gifted myself a sense of patience along the way I could have saved myself so much pain and anxiety. Every time I wanted or reached for something it either manifested eventually or I realized along the way that I wanted to choose differently. I had the power to choose again.

Let’s look at the exact opposite of patience: IMPATIENCE. This brings up urgency, frustration, disappointment, fear. All of these feeling take us right out of our superpower and place us directly in disempowering emotional states that make us reactive to life and choose poorly. When we are impatient how can we be loving or compassionate? How can we be present in the moment?

Patience, on the other hand speaks of enormous confidence and calm. Patience says “Take a deep breath, everything is going to be okay”. What an enormous strength as a leader. It instills confidence in your team and in your patients and in your community. Patience as a parent is one of the greatest sources of love and compassion. How different would we be as adults if we had received more patience from the grownups in our lives and what beautiful skills might that have developed within us.

Mostly, patience shines most brilliantly when we can be patient with ourselves. Patient for the growth and the journey, patient for the fumbling and the learning, patient for the place we were, the place we are, the place we are going. Patience gives us permission to keep going, to keep dreaming, to keep living a life of intention and joy.

Is anything truly urgent? How much of what you perceive as “urgent” truly is?

How would you life look different if you leaned on the power of Patience?