Development Rule #6 - Patience- Persistence Paradox

"Many of life's failures are experienced by people who didn't realize how close they were when they gave up." Thomas A. Edison

This is one of my absolute favorite rules because it is one of the most important and powerful criteria for career growth yet it seems so hard to achieve in our modern culture which is all about 'on demand', 'now', and customization. While we tend to relate better to persistence, when things don't go our way it's natural to lose patience. It's so easy to expect in our careers what we expect from our mobile devices, yet for most it just doesn't work that way. It's a marathon not a sprint and those playing the long game often have the greatest success and career progression. There is something deeply important about showing up every day, learning, growing, keeping with it, taking things step by step.

"Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different" C.S. Lewis

Being both patient and persistent with your professional development and your career growth is critical. If you're only patient you'll likely miss opportunities. If you're only persistent it can be trying on others and have a negative impact on your opportunities and reputation. The sweet spot is persistently pursuing growth and opportunities while being patient to allow things to mature at the right pace. Nothing great happens in an instant however life is full of "all of a sudden" moments. All of a sudden moments are those break through moments that appear to happen over night but are usually the results of years or even decades of persistence. There are examples of this everywhere around us from the singer who has their break through moment on TV to the tech start up founder who spent 10 years working hard on an idea before it jumped into the limelight. 

I love reading about people and cultures we deem to be successful and the consistent theme is the balance of patience and persistence. It's easy looking back through history to only see the outcome and under estimate the investment and time it took to achieve. Great civilizations and countries were built over decades or centuries, not in weeks or years. Great men and women who had a profound impact on our societies such as Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, and Benjamin Franklin all had to demonstrate great persistence and patience. They all could have given up, lost their patience, or let go of the vision they had for significant change and if they did we would be worse off today.  I love this article about how Thomas Edison was one of the best at this rule.

To make this practical here are some ways to apply Patience to your development;

Keep a good attitude when you don't get the promotion you deserve

Be a great follower, even if you are in leadership yourself

Make your manager look great even if you are the real star

Accept that some of the most important growth comes through challenging times

Drop the demands and instead demonstrate value, consistently, every day, for however long it takes

Accept that life is not fair and things don't always make sense, you don't have to understand

And here's how to be Persistent;

Volunteer for extra assignments and projects

Create and manage your own development plan

Seek out mentors & coaches to learn from

Get close to someone in the role you want so you can learn how to perform it 

Be present and be engaged

Tell people about your aspirations and goals and ask for their input and help

Don't give up easily despite the temptation and high number of opportunities to do so

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." Aristotle

This concept can easily be linked to the powerful impact of creating habits. Learn how to build healthy habits in your career, full of patience and persistence, and over time you will achieve excellence. Isn't our ambition to develop because we are motivated to achieve excellence and success in our life?

What Eddie the Eagle did best was understand and live out this rule

I would love to hear your thoughts on this concept, please share in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

Alan