Your Mom's Advice Wasn’t Worthless: Patience Is A Virtue And Here’s Why
My tolerance for patience has been a blessing and a curse.
I’m as patient as a cat in a fishbowl. As a dog in front of a bone. As patient as a toddler in a toy store.
I’m not patient.
When you look deep within yourself, you’re impatient for many reasons.
I’m impatient because of my wild personality traits. ADD, type-A, mildly OCD and introverted. Go ahead, keep thinking it.
I’m a mess, and it’s safe to say, you’re not far behind me.
Over the years of building my business, I’ve learned many lessons on how to be patient, which I’ll share with you now…
Patient is a virtue. Your mom was right.
A lot of people want to be an “overnight” success yet the only way to be a success is over many nights.
How’s that for a contradiction?
Success takes patience. An intense focus on a goal followed by laser-like execution.
Nothing great happens today. Today is for execution. Tomorrow is where you’ll achieve the fruits of your labor from today’s output.
I’ve learned to be patient with many things. It helped that my wife and mom would beat me over the head with a patience stick for over a decade.
Sure, I’m still impatient.
Waiting in a Disney World line for 2-hours with my son is not one of them. Waiting in traffic is not one of them. Waiting 15-minutes in a Starbucks line when I can make my own coffee is not one of them.
I’m patient where patience is needed.
In producing long-term results. In learning a complex skill. Teaching others about an important topic. On letting my son get upset, staying calm and composed so we can work his feelings out together.
A lot of my patience has come in the form of my life’s philosophy of “Am I ROTTING Away Today?”
My Return On Time (ROT).
If things don’t add to my life’s return on time, I’m impatient. This is very subjective on what your goals and rules for living are.
Everyone is different.
I’m not okay with wasted time.
But I’m patient if that time is spent with family, executing goals and building a business, thinking about the future, learning, developing my mind and body, working on my emotions, and spending time in solitude to balance it all out.
Patience comes from aligning what you’re doing with your life’s vision, mission, and values.
My business goal is to hit $100,000,000 in revenue, to have 5 brands under my leadership, and to be rated one of the best places to work.
I’ve stumbled. I’ve fallen. But with the goals set, and the focus areas being executed on, I know this isn’t an overnight success. This is a patient focus on the end result.
I also have to focus on my emotional health. To achieve this, I spend an incredible amount of time with my family. I chill out in nature. I’m patient in these idle times.
These are important to me. I only have 1,440 minutes in a day. I only have 100 years (my goal is 120) in this world. I must maximize each second.
One of my rules for living is progress, not perfection. I’m patient on my progress as nothing is ever “perfect.” As a perfectionist, this becomes very difficult which is why I focus on it.
I’m starting to run charity 5ks to support non-profits that I believe in. These are primarily related to wildlife preservation and children’s health. Areas I’m passionate about.
My goal is to run below an 8-minute mile. I’m 190 pounds and have focused on heavy lifting most of my life, this won’t be an easy task. I’m patient with my goal as I’m putting in the work daily.
23 Likes, 2 Comments - Nate Anglin (@nateanglin) on Instagram: "Another life lesson smacked me in the face today on my 50min interval run. I'm shooting for a sub..."
The work I put in today will generate the results I see tomorrow.
Sitting at dinner with your family for two hours is a better use of your time than being stuck in traffic for two hours.
Know what you value most and be impatient with everything that distracts you from it, is okay.
When you feel impatience brewing, just breathe.
My son ran into my room pissed off. Crying he couldn’t get his dinosaur to stand up. Ahh, the simple things.
I said, Noah, breathe and he breathed. He calmed down. He does it every time. He’s two, so can you.
Life doesn’t go as planned. You get stuck. You stumble. You fall.
In times of discomfort and impatience, just breathe.
Let’s go through a quick breathing exercise…
Slowly breathe in through your nose, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Hold, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Slowly exhale through your mouth, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Repeat 5 times.
Now wasn’t that easy?
Perform this simple breathing technique during times of impatience.
After you breathe tell yourself to “calm the fuck down.” Seriously, those exact words. Give yourself a mental punch.
Remember, if you want more patience you have to know what matters to you. Success and progress are a marathon, not a sprint.
Thanks for reading! :) Be humble. Be hungry. Be you!
