I want Patience – and I want it NOW!

“Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you miss it.” – Ferris Bueller

Okay – not exactly Aristotle or Epictetus, but true nonetheless. 

Every Life Coach I have met has a version of this in their toolkit, on their Blog and on their social media posts.  Slow down, enjoy life, hit pause.

On the other hand, most Business Coaches I know doesn’t.  They write and speak about producing, actively moving forward, getting things accomplished, and moving towards success.

But what if the two are combined?  What if we stop, wait, look around, then move?  What if we actively participate in non-activity and instead just wait and be sometimes?

Where is it written that in order to be successful you have to be on GO all the time? 

Our society runs on fast-forward.  We don’t even watch TV anymore in “real-time”.  Instead the vast majority DVR their favorite shows, or catch it on-demand, and whiz past the commercials. 

We even do that for live sports in our home!  We often start the Clemson football game about an hour after kick-off time.

“There is more to life than increasing its speed.” – Ghandi

The motto of “Why wait when you can have it now?” is a part of our instant-gratification world.

But stop for a minute and think about it…

Speed is not always a good thing, and waiting is not always a bad thing.

“No great thing is created suddenly.” – Epictetus

Speed breeds impatience.  Doing things quickly is like a badge of honor these days with the “overnight success” that some experience, and the do-it-now-and-move-to-the-next-thing attitude.  Much of which, I believe, is a result of our desire to be constantly entertained and gratified.

Case in point: we sit in waiting rooms (that is a crazy thing to think about – a room made for the sole purpose of WAITING) yet we don’t just stop and wait.  We engage the digital extension of our arm and amuse ourselves with social media, or a game, or something “productive” like checking email or having an instant-response-text-conversation.

Recently I sat in a waiting room at a doctors office and put my phone away and looked around.  There was a business-woman presumably checking her email, a mom handing her phone to a toddler to play a game (we start them young), a teenager (earbuds in place) zoning out on what I can only assume was a constant ever-changing thread of social media, and there was an eighty-some elderly man tapping away playing solitaire on his iPad. 

Then there was me.  Itching to open my screen and amuse myself with a digital book or some other task to take me away from the experience of waiting.  But I resisted…and observed.

To this day, weeks later, I remember their faces, their smiles, the little ones laugh, the bird that kept flying into the window and the blue sky peeking through the waving green leaves of the tall trees. 

I also remember my thoughts as I sat there.  I was contemplating an upcoming speaking engagement and the intentions and “learning objectives” I had decided upon. 

I deduced, while I waited, that I needed to shift a few thoughts and a few “points” in the presentation.  Boy am I glad I did!  The first version was fine, but had I not taken that time to just sit, think, and wait I would have missed the opportunity to refine the message and provide a clearer more impactful experience for the group.

See, many times in business (and life) we latch onto the first idea that comes to mind.  We are too impatient and results-oriented to realize that the first idea may not be the best.  So, we ‘run with it’ to see where it will go hoping for a transformation or a big break.

Then we are surprised or disappointed that it didn’t live up to our ‘quick’ expectations.

“Patience: this is the greatest business asset.  Wait for the right time to make your moves.” – J.Paul Getty

We need to develop our patience muscles. 

We all want to be more patient, but the problem is we want it NOW!

We get an idea – we want to implement it NOW.

We create a new program – we want people to do it NOW.

We meet a new prospect – we want them to buy NOW.

We write an email campaign or a BLOG – we want to send it NOW, before we review it, just get it out NOW.

Networking follow-up is a great example:  you go to an event and meet what you believe is a HOT prospect for your product or service.  So, you take action.  You email.  You connect on social media.  You try to set up a call or a meeting “at their earliest convenience”.  All within the first 48 hours of meeting them.

Crickets.  No Response.

No sale.

But, if you had waited, if you had practiced patience and spent some time getting to know them, their needs, engaged in a mutual exchange of attention, and built a relationship first…

BOOM!  Sale…along with the creation of a raving fan who sings your praises and sends you referrals.

“Lack of patience can kill your business.” – Nepali Sutra

So wait. Create a waiting room of your own.  Spend time AWAY from the ever-increasing To-Do list of work, the desire to be action-oriented, and hit pause. 

I am not telling you to wait for success to come knocking at your door.  That isn’t likely to happen. 

You can’t take NO action and just WAIT for things to happen, or the climate to be just right to launch, or the circumstances to be just so…but rather wait long enough to really know you are moving in the right direction, that you are not forcing something, or someone, down a path that is not on the road to success.

Your business will thank you for it.