Tag Archives: plan

Patience

Patience enables the fallen to become mighty once again.  All of us will experience highs and lows throughout our lifetimes.  Remaining permanently at the bottom of a cycle is unlikely.

Sometimes just exercising our capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset is all that is needed before we rise up again.

Hope/ Optimism

Being hopeful about future outcomes leading to confidence in your future success is key to the practice of patience.  Waiting for good things to happen is easier when you are confident they will.

You may not be positive you will rise again to a level of greatness you once had or even exceed that of the past.  Pushing hard to achieve this might work however there is likely a time when a combination of patience and well-timed effort will serve you better.

Savour the Opportunity

There is a common English saying “what goes around, comes around”.   This, of course, can refer to both good and bad things returning but it does underscore the point that patience will probably lead to something.

Your objective is for your plans to lead to something good.  Careful consideration and planning makes achievement of your goals more likely and the patience to plan is a key part of that.

Take your time, remain optimistic, most likely things will come around.  Your time to rise and be mighty will arrive.  Wait for it, be patient, watch for the opportunities and take them when when it makes sense.

Patience

Good things will happen over time.  To avoid frustration and angst while waiting for their arrival requires patience.  This is the skill that enables us to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

It has been said that patience is a virtue.  While this is a catchy phrase which associates patient behavior with high moral standards, I believe patience is more a learned skill than a virtue.

Value-Based Motivation

It makes the most sense to practice patience if there is a clear benefit to doing so.    Immediate gratification usually feels a lot better than waiting, so why should we be patient?

The quality of the result is often raised when the appropriate time is allowed for maturation.  In a nutshell, this is the value of patience.   Patience is required to execute a strategic approach.

For Example

Many large public corporations develop and communicate with their stakeholders the companies long term business strategies.  These can cover five to ten year periods.

Sadly, executing these strategies often requires shareholder patience and that is often lacking.  Stock prices are impacted by the immediate and tactical and frequently this causes changes to or even derails the strategies.

Leaders of public corporation who ignore the need for stakeholders to receive immediate gratification often regret it.   Sadly patience is a skill oft-overlooked,

Over the longer term being able to preserve over the short term bumps and grinds of the economy and focus on well-defined goals (not just those of expediency) the results will be better.

Acting too Quickly

Sometime our reaction to dissatisfying events or others negative actions or perceived attacks can be strong and heavily laden with emotion.  In these cases acting precipitously can lead to undesirable results.

Initial reactions are valid and can be useful in the moment but whenever possible a pause to reflect before taking action is a prudent risk management approach.

What Risk?

If your position is iron clad and your reaction appropriate the risk of adverse impacts is lowered;  However, the reality is our subjective assessment usually comes first and objective analysis requires a little more time and consideration.

Just in case your emotions are driving a subjective perspective of the event or other persons behavior, taking a moment  (even hours or days depending on the complexity) to make sure your response will lead to the outcome you seek is well worth the effort. 

This is really just basic risk management.  That is, there is a very real risk whatever you do (from nothing to a furious proclamation) will exacerbate and escalate the problem.

Suck it up

Some times you have unquestionably been wronged.  In these cases forcefully and clearly stating your position and expectations can be a valid approach.

Unfortunately, the other party or stakeholders might not hold the same perspective and your forthrightness could prolong the path to an acceptable solution (acceptable to you) or even deter it entirely.

It may not be as emotionally satisfying but in some cases it just makes sense to suck up your self righteousness plan an approach that is more likely to achieve what you seek, even if it offends your sensibilities a bit. 

After all what is more important a brief moment of emotional satisfaction of attaining your objective.