"Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success." Brian Adams

One of the most important virtues in today's world is that of patience, yet it is non-existent. All Homo-sapiens are in a hurry and just want to make things happen in a jiffy. People want to get everything quickly and are not willing to wait for it or to put in the required effort. They fail to realize that nothing is easy in this world and there is some sort of effort and struggle before one achieves his or her desires.

What we should understand is that we do not immediately reap what we have sown and similarly, we do not immediately receive return on our investment. It takes time and we need to give life just that. Our responsibility is to do our part in life and leave the rest to GOD. What is our part? Our part is to make sure that we do our best in achieving our goals. We need to first think and plan, write an action plan, take the necessary steps and then slowly and steadily put in the required effort in order to reap the rewards. But remember that this takes careful planning and requires us to put thought into it and this whole procedure takes time and hence we need to be patient.

What is patience?

Patience does not mean that we just sit around forever and wait for things to happen. Patience does not mean that we do not fight for our rights. Patience means to keep going on no matter what the circumstances are and to keep motivated and to go the extra mile. There are times when we have a certain goal to achieve, we struggle towards it and think that our efforts are going in vain and hence start losing patience when we really have to cling on a little bit longer and keep going with the hope that the goal is close by. More often than not, we tend to let go of our ambitions at the last moments, just before we are there and this situation is tragic. That is why they say not to lose hope and to remain steadfast in the face of adversity.

Patience is hard. First of all it requires long term endurance and secondly, it accompanies many other obstacles and difficulties. There is unfair judgment, mistreatment, people underestimate your abilities or simply just do not give you your due. These are testing times and these are the times you need to be at your toes the most. You have to fight these circumstances, keep doing what you are doing, persevere continuously and remain hopeful of the future.

Following are some ways that will help you to tackle impatience as it comes and develop patience at the same time.

What is there in it for you?

Whenever an unpleasant situation arises which requires you to hold on and be patient, think about what there is in it for you. Why should you really be patient in the face of this adversity? Is it going to be of any benefit to you? If yes, you should and these reasons will be a source of motivation for you to be patient. At the same time, think about the negative outcomes of not being patient. Will it hurt you, your family, your career or your life goals? If yes, you are better off being patient and wait for the right time. Develop realistic expectations

One of the best ways to tackle impatience is to change your attitude towards life and develop realistic expectations. Be ready for all sorts of situations and circumstances. Strive to achieve things in the time you have given yourself and give it your best shot. But at the same time, keep in mind that things are not always as we want them to be and should always expect the unexpected. When you are ready for both types of outcomes, you are more patient and steadfast and it is much easier to adapt rather than just hoping that things will turn out well and when they don't, you don't know what to do and how to react.

Contingency Plan

Always have a contingency plan ready. When you have an alternative plan ready, you remain at ease do not lose yourself.
You either get your way and even if you don't, you do not procrastinate as you know what the other way of getting it is.
That is how you will eventually reach your goal and all the way through you would have been patient and would have faced life with strength and compassion.

Setbacks are not permanent

Always keep in mind that setbacks are temporary and not permanent. These are just stepping stones to success. These setbacks will not last long and will be good for you in the long run. Simply work at solving the certain setbacks that have occurred and move on with a positive attitude. Anything that doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

Keep your health a Priority

We must bear the fact that our health is extremely important. If we take certain temporary setbacks too seriously, they might affect our physical, mental and emotional health. This overall situation will have an ill effect on all aspects of our lives and hence, result in the deterioration of the quality of our lives in the short term as well as in the long term.

Recognize and realize that things are not always in our control Taking the above factor into consideration will itself help in developing patience. There are many a circumstances which are just not in our hand and we really cannot do anything about it.

What to do then? Cry? Fret? Feel stressed out? Feel miserable and destroy our lives? The answer is NO! We only need to accept certain facts of life and accept them as they are. This is one of the most important lessons of life. Some things are just not the way we want them to be and nothing can be done about it.

Therefore, we shall just look at the positive side and move on to something else that is even more beneficial and fruitful towards our life goals. Coming to the conclusion, patience is a virtue that should be used towards enhancing our lives and making the best use of it. Impatience like violence is a vice that, if not handled properly will lead to disaster and a miserable life. All we need to do is to practice patience in our daily lives and we shall make our lives worthwhile and the world a better place.

"There are three secrets to managing. The first secret is having patience. The second is being patient. And the third most important secret is patience". Chuck Tanner

Talha Tashfeen Qayyum
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
talha.tashfeen#gmail.com (Replace # with @)
http://www.personal-development.com/talha
http://talhatashfeen.blogspot.com/