Patience is a Virtue

#Happiness in Life depends upon the Quality of your Thoughts

"Patience is the Art of Concealing your Impatience"?

Most of us have now come across a philosophy of life in this new age that was mastered to perfection in ancient times.What was it that made people in the long gone days so happy and contended with their lives and surroundings.

Why NOW in this 21st Century, we mortals of this digital age suddenly running around to seek eternal peace and a life away from materialistic values adopting Yoga and other practices like 'The Art Of Living'.

It took me years to learn the 'art of patience'. May not have mastered it to the fullest but surely have changed my approach to life and the daily wants and happenings around me. I have begun to realize my inner potential and the voice of my soul in approaching different facets to every days desires of people surrounding me.

How come this sudden urge to connect to spirituality. Or is this is the sound of the internal clock ticking.

With each passing minute, our biological clock is passing time, waiting for us to reach the next stage in your life.

Have we found ourself searching for something lately? If Yes, that’s our internal self searching for a meaning to our very existance in this fast pace environment that we have immersed ourself to become competitive and trying to get more than what we can chew.

Sounds like your body and mind are signaling you might be ready to start thinking about CHANGE.

Your YES to the above means you’re likely experiencing desirable and/or jealous emotions. Before you start worrying yourself into a stressful frenzy, know that this is entirely normal. Thirty-somethings are all too eager to grow up and mature as quickly as possible. As soon as we see our friends, former high school peers, coworkers, and other twenty-somethings hosting weddings, baby showers, and housewarming parties, we tend to feel a bit nervous and a tad envious of them. In short, we feel as though we are missing out.

Naturally, why wouldn’t we be experiencing these symptoms? As an outsider looking in, life looks grand! Fancy Car, Big fat Salaries, Money in the Bank, Promotions, babies, and owning your own home are not only an expected part of life, but are also all components that society has deemed necessary to find happiness and solace. These BIG steps are ones you have likely dreamt of since childhood.

To take the edge off of your guilty desires, I do want you to know that you are not alone. Being a thirty-something comes with a whole lot of transitions. If you’re not working toward solidifying a professional degree, chances are you’re competing in the job market for that prized career. On top of professionalizing yourself and discovering what you want in life, how are you supposed to juggle marriage, a family, and your own home? Don’t worry fellow thirty-somethings, it will all pan out in due time.

For now, remember these important pointers and just breathe:

The best way to teach patience is to practice patience. Easier said than done, right?

The truth is that some people are naturally more patient than others. While some people seem to breeze through stressful events and long waits, others have difficulty in the same situations. For some people, learning to be patient requires more practice and, well, patience! 

(1) Be contended with what you already have: When you’re setting high goals for yourself or always looking onward toward the next best thing, it can be easy to forget all of the goodness right in front of you. Take a moment to appreciate your surroundings. Smell the flowers. Listen to your footsetps when you walk the garden or during your daily jogs. Remember to live in the now because you’ll have plenty of time to become rich and happy.

Becoming rich is not only having money. Richness comes from your attitude and behaviors to others. The love and respect you display from within for your parents, family and friends not excluding strangers that we come across in our journey of life.

(2) Enjoy the moment: What is important to you in this moment? Is it having a big title at your job or having more friends or something materialistic in life.? Learning to live independently? Traveling the world? Right now, you are your own person. Focus on the path you’re on and the rest will follow. Its all about keeping the perspective.

(3) Model patience: Being patient doesn’t mean just being able to wait; it means being able to wait calmly (eye rolling, sighs, and whining do not count). It can be difficult to remain patient when you’re trying to get your assignment completed or you're late for an important appointment. This is exactly when you need to remain calm. Use humor and positive thoughts that will keep you moving along, laugh when something doesn’t go according to plan, and problem-solve out loud when something becomes stressful. When I start verbalizing my potential problem solving strategies, all others start chiming in with me. Just the other day I walked in on my colleague talking his way through a puzzle. It works.

(4) Use reflective listening: It’s hard to wait in line all morning for getting your work done at the bank or dropping your kids to school, especially when you would rather be playing. Acknowledge the struggle and help your self verbalize your feelings. Be sure to use a calm voice, make eye contact, and keep your body posture stress-free. Sometimes you just need to feel heard, and a little help verbalizing those frustrations in a calm manner.

(5) Dont let your emotions get better of you: You can be happy for your married, parenting, home-owning peers or succesful colleagues without being jealous. Honor the notion that they were ready before you, and move on. Your time will come!

Working on a creative project or completing a daunting challenging tasks may seems to take for ever to complete or may be unfinished. It can go on for months or even years to finish. And once we’re done, when we look back on all that time we’ve spent, it only seems fair that after a little break, you can start reaping the rewards of all that hard work. And that is when things start getting worse.

The long days and hours of toil, the sleepless nights worrying if you were on the right path. We know how you probably put it away for a while but then decided to pull it out and try again. We know how much it feels like you have crossed a finish line and you’re now waiting for your medal.

No matter how truly great the accomplishment, if a good word or reward ever does come, it may take a long, long time. You may be stuck trying to find someone or your colleagues appreciate you for the work, or even worse — you have no one biting. You may have a label that keeps coming up with excuses why your work has not been appreciated or lets say ignored.

It is the kind of interminable, tortuous waiting game that makes you think why in the world you would ever spend so much energy getting your hopes up and again and again. And there is only one way to really overcome this. And some of you may find the cure worse than the diseaes: You have to get back to work.

Now, we all know that this may be the last thing you want to do, especially when you are still exhausted from your previous project and finding your heart being used like a rag doll. But the waiting around, the rethinking, the trying to psychically force someone else to do your bidding ends up wasting time and we’re always on the hunt for those extra minutes.

If you have created something that, to you, is pretty much completely finished then the time has now come in someone's elses hands. It means now your hands are free, and more willing to start something new than you realize.

"Be Bold when You Loose - - be Calm when You Win Changing the Face will Change Nothing...."

Tell me, what is your chosen art of patience? ( do write your comments on this lovely article. You will need patience to realize that you also have a skill that can be honed for a better tomorrow.)

About the Author Percy is an experientail trainer to a diversified and multicultural audiences from Retail Sales, Procurement & Supply Chain and is a self taught mentor and guide in 'The Art Of Living', Having successfully attained the highest laurels in his professional career and recognized as the best in the industry he is now a volunteer guide and coach to people in search of living a happy and purposeful life. In his leisure time, Percy enjoys writing, finding the next life changing article to binge, and taking too many photos of his daily experiences as he travels across the globe which he shares on his fb page @percyjalengineer. Percy is a street food addict and loves drinking cuppa of tea as many as he can. A proud father, caring husband and loving son of his mother who he respects for all her kindness and an attitude of always helping others with charitable work and words of wisdom.

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