Do you have the patience to be successful?

In today’s world that has become accustomed to instant gratification, patience has become a rare commodity. 

Whether you are starting a new enterprise, a new role in a company or trying to lose weight, people want to see immediate results. And when that doesn’t happen, very quickly a sense of dejection sets in. 

But if we were to take a cue from nature, then for anything to grow, there is a cycle. A child takes nine months to be born from the time of conception. A seed has to become a sapling, a sapling becomes a plant and only then does it become a tree, and that is something that we accept. 

We don’t plant a seed today and expect to see a tree tomorrow, yet when it comes to ourselves we set unrealistic expectations of achieving success overnight. 

Whether you take old pearls of wisdom from Aristotle who said, ‘Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet'. Or advice from today’s success stories like Jack Ma, who said, ‘The very important thing you should have is patience.’ The message is the same. For anything to reach fruition it takes time.

People are often enamored by stories of instant success, but they don’t always see the perseverance, hard work and dedication that has gone into it.

 Success is not overnight, and the graph of growth is never an ideal straight line consistently rising upwards. There are always going to be ups and downs in the journey.

And sometimes it feels like you only see more of the downs and less of the ups. This is usually the time when we begin to question ourselves. Are we doing the right thing? Did we make the right decisions? Should we not have invested the money that we did?

And exactly at these moments is when your patience should kick in, when irrespective of all the obstacles and setbacks, it is important that you persevere and not take your eyes off the goal. History is full of stories of accomplishment of those who stayed long enough and treaded along patiently.

Have the patience to reach your goal, have the patience to become a thriving leader, have the patience to become successful.