Patience empowers and promotes politeness.
Who truly appreciates rude and abrupt interjections, being cut off mid-sentence?
We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us that they may see… and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even with a fiercer life because of our quiet.
-William Butler Yeats
Raise a hand. Wait your turn. It can be that simple when you patiently slow down and think it all through. Consider this an additional clue for both me and you. Seriously, in professional workspaces, I will raise my hand and wait my turn. It establishes priority, prevents perturbing flow, and, well, it works well. I ruffle significantly fewer feathers. Workplace climate forecasts better weather. Whether you are convinced or not, try it. Consider this a bright and sunny sugjestion to avoid having a raincloud form overhead.
Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone.
-Margaret Atwood
Prime, primed positioning pays profitably when you patiently practice progressively perfecting preparations in order to pounce at opportune points, perhaps planned or unprompted. After all, we know that paths to hell (or purgatory?) can be paved with good (or pristine) intentions (postulations). Patience proves to be pretty appropriate and pleasant to employ to a particular point. Prioritize positive projects post-pause posthaste.
Fear both the heat and the cold of your heart, and try to have patience, if you can.
-J.R.R. Tolkien1
Blending all of these beliefs together builds the best balance because patience by itself will not result in many residuals. Leveraging those lulls to limber lithe levels of legwork, both literal and figurative, can set you up for significant success. Balancing productive uptimes with restorative downtimes is a key. Patience is an important piece of the perplexing puzzle that we can call life (or people, personas, or personalities).
[The river] knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, ‘There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.’
-A.A. Milne
How well do you currently understand your own inner workings? Are you aware of the universal flow, to know when to move fast or slow? Take a bit, have a sit, and look under your own hood. Are things good? Should any alignments be adjusted? Can you identify anything busted? Repairs are possible when you ask yourself, “what is underneath it all?”
Maybe it is wise. Maybe it is dumb. Time will tell.
- Happy Birthday, Mr. Tolkien, wherever you are are :) <3 ↩︎