On Patience

Once you were troubled when everything
failed to work out according to plan,
then you learned all of life’s setbacks
are the most important part of the plan.

3 ideas + 3 questions on patience, from me.

Patience is your ability to accept the difference between reality and expectation. Patience is what you choose, when you choose not to use anger as a default response when life doesn’t work out according to your plans. Patience is your ability to apply understanding in place of anger to the things you may not immediately understand. The most mundane of situations call forward a conversation with patience. Every time we wait — in a long line at the bank or for an open table in a busy restaurant — we are invited to explore patience. When we are in the midst of bringing our biggest dreams to life, and everything seems to be falling apart, we are invited to deepen our conversation with patience. Patience invites us to let go of expectation and surrender without resistance to what is unfolding in front of us. Bringing our most important dreams to life will inevitably involve setbacks. The harder it is for us to let go in the moment, the greater the opportunity before us to develop patience.

3 ideas on patience:

1. Next time you wait in a long line, accept the invitation to appreciate patience.

2. Appreciation of patience is an inner game. Next time you notice anger is your immediate response to an experience different than your expectation, notice if your inner world wants the outer world to be different. Accept it and let go of it.

3. Identify five things you get from deepening your conversation with patience.

Plus, three questions:

1. How do you respond when expectation does not meet reality?

2. How is patience an essential ingredient of your success?

3. Where is your biggest opportunity to explore patience today?

3 insights on patience, from others.

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