The Power of Patience: How This Old-Fashioned Virtue Can Improve Your Life

Patience. By nature, I’m impatient – with myself, sometimes with others. I like to move forward. I like to get things done. When there’s a problem, I prefer to fix it now . That’s true both professionally and when it comes to interpersonal relationships. When I’m trying to close a deal, I’ll find myself thinking, “What can I do to make it happen fa... See more

The thing about patience is that you need to practice deliberately by slowing yourself down, taking a break, and not following the crowd.

By slowing down, you might not get to the finish line first. You might get an average result. But you are also more likely to stay in the game longer because you avoid burning yourself out over the short run.

To wait for something is to value it, to want it, to yearn for it, but to face its absence, its attainment forestalled by time and circumstance. All true waiting — which is different from abstinence, delayed gratification, and other forms of self-discipline — has an element of helplessness to it and is therefore training ground for mastering the vi... See more