Patience

I know it's been a while since my last post,...but that's because I was helping you to work on what this post is about - patience. =)

Really though, patience is a very important trait to possess as you travel down the Road of Success. No matter how much you want to achieve a goal, or "become successful," in order to do it right, it will take time. How much time depends on many factors, but most important things take more than just a few days or even weeks to accomplish. There is a natural sequence and timing for almost everything. I'm using the word natural here as in "nature" as in successful people have a certain nature that you can predict and usually be right. For instance it's in the nature of a successful person to be honest, to have integrity, to be ambitious, to get along well with people and/or be very intelligent, etc. You must align yourself with the nature of success, and one of it's aspects is to have patience. Picture it this way:

You are in your car driving down the Road of Success and you know that your next destination that you want to get to is Goal A Station. "Goal A Station" signifies a particular goal you are working toward (creative huh?). You know that Goal A Station is 247 miles away and that the best way to get there is to keep driving on the Road of Success. The miles represent the many different steps you need to take in order to achieve the goal you are working toward. But no matter how badly you want to get to Goal A Station (achieve the goal), you still have to travel all 247 miles until you can get there! You can't take a short-cut because there aren't any or there may be some that look like they are but those roads are littered with potholes, broken glass and nails, and dead ends that you can't see until you get close. And your car can only go so fast, there's a limit on the speedometer after all and if you try to go too fast you'll burn up your engine (or "burn-out" as they say). So no matter what, even if you go as fast as you can without risking burning up your engine, it's still going to take you a certain amount of time to travel all 247 miles before you'll get there.

Since I mentioned nature a little while ago, let me give you another example. Picture a farmer who is really ambitious. He wants to grow and sell as much corn as he can so he can make a lot of money and feed thousands of people. So he plants seeds in the Spring in his whole field and keeps working as much as he can to get it done as soon as possible, only stopping to sleep for a few hours each night and eat a couple of meals per day. When he finally gets his whole field seeded, most of the other farmers are only half-way done with their fields. But then what? There is a natural sequence and time-frame for growing and harvesting crops, and no matter how much ambition the farmer has, or how intelligent, or nice, or popular he is...the seeds will take time to sprout, grow, and fruit so the corn can be harvested and there's not much the farmer can do to speed up that process. If he tries to give it the plants water faster than he should, they will die. If he keeps putting more and more fertilizer on the field, they will die. If he plants the seeds earlier in hopes that they will grow and produce corn earlier, they probably won't even grow in the first place because the ground will still be too cold and will kill the seeds. But if he plants the seeds at the right time, gives them the right amount of water and fertilizer, and is patient, he will grow healthy productive plants and have plenty of corn to sell. He must be patient and wait for the natural cycle to be complete in order to achieve his goal.

So too must we continue to do all of the things we know we should to in order to be successful and achieve our goals, while being patient at the same time. We can be super ambitious, intelligent, happy, optimistic, determined, and persistent,...and maybe we'll be able to achieve our goals a little faster that way. But we still have to be patient and realize that some things, especially important things, just take time.

Are you trying to rush success? Stop it! Keep that ambition, optimism, and determination....but be patient. You will succeed, but it may take some time. Be patient.