Building a Life That Matters: The Correlation Between Patience and Success

"Patience, by definition, means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can - working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!" - Dieter F. Uchtdorf

A great example of this is illustrated in the work of a dear friend and mentor of mine, Edward M. O'Keefe Ph.D. Dr. O'Keefe spent the better part of 22 years waiting to publish his first book. The reasons for the delay pale in comparison to the experience gained along the way - truly an exercise in enduring well. His life's work was finally published this year and you can check out the link to the review I wrote here. Take It From The Top: What To Do With a Peak Experience.

It would be lackluster for me to say that the patience demonstrated By Dr. O'Keefe to insure he got his message across as intended instead of early gratification is tantamount to the core principles involved in the art of patience as described above, but truth be told I believe that's exactly what Ed would say. As important as his work and book are, the benefit of waiting to produce it the way he wanted it and the way it would provide the most impact on the world was definitely worth the wait...or better said, worth the watchful waiting and diligent overseeing connected to its publication.

Patience, in my humble opinion, is the result of a certain practice and can only be displayed by those who embrace their demons as well as their positive qualities. (see photo for artistic view) Patience, therefore, has gained the status of virtue and is one of the most desired qualities to "Build a Life That Matters" and to the success of the individual able to demonstrate it, giving credence the old adage that "good things are worth waiting for." In today's world of instant gratification, that's often a hard sell for most people!

Impatience, on the other hand, is a symptom of selfishness. It is a trait of the self-absorbed. It arises from the all too-prevalent condition called "center of the universe" syndrome, which leads people to believe that the world revolves around them and that all others are just supporting cast in the grand theater of mortality in which only they have the starring role.”
― Dieter F. Uchtdorf

While there are more examples of this type of behavior than I care to mention each one of us will recognize it when it appears before us because is so self absorbed that the universe will move aside to permit it to play out in front of us. Perhaps this is so to create a vivid contrast that we might recognize in ourselves a negative without value other than the lesson that accompanies it! And that, my friends, is where I choose to leave it!

I have to admit that this attribute, among all of the others I will discuss in this series, is and has been the most difficult for me to learn and practice. Even as a former Type A personality who has come an awfully long way on his journey towards wholeness, I still find myself lamenting over the difficulty in mastering techniques to improve my patience. It isn't so much tolerance at issue as it is the ability to endure willingly, to know when to hold onto a principle and when to hold onto it with an open esprit de corps, while persevering with the forbearance of nobility.

Having said that, I encourage my clients and friends and family, at least those who will listen, to value the art of patience and I do so with a great deal of compassion knowing how arduous a task it is to be patient in the truest sense of the word, to demonstrate a faith that goes beyond what we believe to be humanly possible, to understand that there are more factors in manifesting our dreams than we can see and to have the diligence and courage to promote other worthy causes while ours seems distantly faint, or even inactive sometimes. It is this balance of passion and pastoral prudence that draws to a close the most impressive achievements and allows the participants of such endeavors to proceed to the next mission with success, confidence and glee. "Rome was not built in a day" would be the battle cry of someone willing to pay the price of patience to see their dreams come to fruition.

So what is the difference between those who succeed and those who fail? Author, businessman and philosopher Napoleon Hill said,"Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success." In his landmark work, "Think and Grow Rich" Mr. Hill's title hints at the value of patiently waiting. Thinking and growing are terms associated with the passing of time, a process. That's not to say either are painstakingly long, it just means there is a sort of "dutiful waiting period" associated with applying a process to the act of succeeding and part of that process is considering the importance of doing things in the right order at the right time for the right reason. That, would sum up the value of patience.

The antithesis of Mr. Hill's stated philosophy is characterized in this quip by comedian Jonathan Winters when he said, " I couldn't wait for success, so I went ahead without it.

The cornerstone of my belief is that life, and virtually anything in it, is a choice. So it is with patience. We can choose to employ it as a tool for our ultimate success or avoid it, leading to our ultimate demise. In either case the choice belongs to us.

It is my wholehearted recommendation to students of life, that those interested in successfully navigating their time on this sphere, learn all they can about patience, its joys and long sufferings and how the development of the art of its practice enriches each moment of this journey we call life!