Power of Patience

[Harbhajan]

Power of patience

Listen patiently, and you will better understand. Work patiently, and you will build lasting value.

In patience there is power. In patience, there is the expression of real and abiding love.

Patience melts away painful and destructive anxieties. Patience helps to avoid careless mistakes.

Patience reveals a depth of strong character. Patience provides comfort and refuge for those who are weary of the world's frustrations.

Patience is crucial to persistence. And with sufficient persistence, any goal can be reached.

Each day, there are opportunities to make use of the power of patience. As you strengthen your patience, so do you greatly expand the positive possibilities for your life.

-- Ralph Marston

http://www.greatday.com/motivate/

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What is patience?

Patience is the ability to:

Sit back and wait for an expected outcome without experiencing anxiety, tension, or frustration.

Let go of your need for immediate gratification.

Display tolerance, compassion, understanding, and acceptance toward those who are slower than you in developing maturity, emotional freedom, and coping abilities.

Accept your human frailty in the pursuit of personal, physical, emotional, and spiritual growth. Accept the set backs and reversals inevitable in your quest for personal growth.

Believe in the concepts of permanence and commitment. Be calm and considerate as you handle the growth issues in your committed relationships in marriage, family, career, community, or church.

Hang on to a relationship when trouble arises that may take some time to resolve.

Feel peace, contentment, and satisfaction that you are on the path to recovery and personal growth.

Temper your enthusiasm, energy, exuberance, and excitement after you have experienced a renewal of spirit, received revelations or insights.

Accept the non-enthusiastic reception of others to share in your ``new found truths.''

Accept that there is no need to rush yourself or others in facing the challenges of emotional growth.

See that overnight reformations are rarely long lasting; gradual change and growth have a greater durability.

Feel relaxed, calm, and placid as you face your daily schedule and the challenges it presents.

Believe that your day to day efforts, sacrifices, and changes are building a new edifice of a whole person with healthy self-esteem.

Feel satisfied with the use of the Tools for Coping tools in a gradual reshaping, rebuilding, and remodeling of yourself into a confident, secure, trusting, loving person dealing in healthy communication, and self-actualization.

What are some negative consequences of impatience?

By being impatient you can:

Run the risk of always being dissatisfied, upset, and angry at yourself for your slow pace of growth and change.

Easily lose your control and fire off outbursts of anger, temper, and blame on those who are slow to change and grow.

Become a member of the ``throw away'' generation, discarding relationships, people, jobs, and school whenever things are not working out as quickly as you want them to.

Waste energy worrying about how slow things are changing instead of directing that energy toward the changes you desire.

Withdraw prematurely from a helping situation because you are not seeing an immediate pay off for your efforts.

Turn off the others in your life who want to support you, but whom you offend by accusing them (when change is slow) of ``not helping you enough.''

Sacrifice friendships and relationships prematurely because the other person is not changing as quickly or as thoroughly as you desire.

Ignore all of the positive gains you and others have made on the road to recovery and growth, only concentrating on what has not yet been accomplished.

Become pessimistic about life, seeing only the ``half empty cup'' rather than the ``half filled cup.''

Be in such a hurry that you neglect to count your blessings and see how far you have come.

Burn yourself out in the pursuit of your goals.

Lose the ability to reward or reinforce any level of success or attainment, discouraging yourself and others in the pursuit of recovery and growth.

Lose the ability to take a large goal and break it down into manageable increments.

Become overwhelmed by the large tasks ahead of you and lose the hope and motivation to keep on trying.

http://www.coping.org/growth/patient.htm#What