1ST PRINCIPLE
PATIENCE—EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT, IT MAY NOT BE TODAY BUT EVENTUALLY
Life is going to find a way to test us as the pursuit of pleasure is not without pains. In the raw, the quest for success is truly not without failure. At times, we may feel that life is unfair. The urge to quit during these times is the highest, but do not give in. Whatever is your dream; if it is important to you, then fight for it. Just remember that there is more than one way to achieving your dreams. If one way does not work, does not mean another will not thrive, just change your strategy. However, never giving in does not mean you keep doing the wrong things over and over, it means to be smart and figure out the correct actions to take and then taking them until you achieve your goals. The impatient people are predisposed to perceiving virtually all situations as threatening—not to their survival per se but to their goals. More exactly, it is as if their survival depends upon the accomplishment of many goals as quickly as possible. This attitude of impatience makes tomorrow look like forever. It is an Achilles heel and like every weakness, it has its shortcomings. This needs a behavioural therapy—change in perspective and reasoning. And to manage this impediment and impetuosity, we have to learn how to overestimate the time it takes to achieve something and underestimate its rewards. Benjamin Franklin said: “blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall not be disappointed.” This art gives us the fortitude to bear with every tough and dilatory situation—whoever expects nothing, is always patient and always gets something, at least nothing. And with this strategy you will not be easily dismayed or disheartened by the results of your expectations. However, this does not mean we should be dismal or pessimistic about our expectations.
Sometimes even our best plan does not come to fruition (success), we need not to be discouraged, but we just have to work smarter. We must also understand that a setback could only affect our feelings but cannot change our future. Robert Schuler said: “tough times never last but tough people do”. And your endurance should not just be the ability to bear a hard time, but also to turn it into glory.
However, you must be hyperopic in your foresight, have a shrewd assessment of the status quo and must be able to envisage the prognosis of every situation in order to ascertain those circumstances that are worth giving enough time to work out, materialise. Sometimes old doors have to be closed for new ones to open—you have to match timing with its benefits. Your ability or artfulness to envisage beyond every situation at the moment will guide your decisions to quit or keep going despite the difficulties and challenges.
Patience is the supreme virtue of the nature, which have nothing but time. It is the ability to wait even when our time is so limited—patience is the key to everything. Remember, we get the chicken by hatching the egg, and not by smashing it. Everything has its requisite, for life, it is patience (time). There is time for everything, amidst is the time to wait (bear). Aristotle wrote: “patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” Most tasks are not going to be easy, even some of them will seem elusive or rather, impossible to achieve. You need not to be frustrated, demoralised or rather, not undermined your ardour for greatness—the future of your prosperity might seem obscured at the moment but eventually, it is not going to be an austerity. And you must chronically strive to ensure that the right things are done irrespective of the challenges. It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required, which is to be patient. We need time to get the best of anything. Like mastering our emotions, patience is a skill—it does not come naturally. It needs to be learnt. Patience needs no energy, but endurance.
Moreover, better days will come again, but not in a moment too soon. Dried grass will grow again, painful moments will be forgotten, broken hearts will heal, sorrowful faces will smile and happy days will come yet again, if we give it time. George Seville wrote: “a man, who is a master of patience, is a master of everything else”. And do not let your pains define you. Your future is better than these hard times; you have to bear this in mind. You have a past and a future, also, an auspicious and a propitious prospect. This mood of despair is a single episode that will soon pass—so have patience, everything is going to be alright; it may not be today but eventually.