Patience is a virtue. I can hear my mum’s words whenever I see or hear this word. Ironic really as I’m pretty sure that my lack of patience comes from her – I am definitely my mother’s son!
Patience is a value that I have learned to develop over time. It is not something that comes naturally to me, but rather something that I have had to work at and perhaps even something that has happened to me as I have got older and more experienced. I need to remind myself, and be reminded by those around me, that things will not happen immediately. I need to reign myself in and give time and space for things to take hold and sometimes I need a nudge to help me.
Patience is hard. For a long time, I would run at 100miles an hour and want, expect even, everyone to keep up. I followed the same misguided belief that the more I did, the quicker I went, the better things would be. There are so many things to do and I wanted to do them all and do them all well. I would jump from idea to idea, never letting anything settle and then wondering why it didn’t work.
Patience is key. Stepping back and waiting, even if it is hard and against my natural instincts, is worth it in the long run. Playing the long game seems to go against a lot of the ‘quick fix’ recommendations that we are flooded with. But time needs to be afforded to allow things to embed, became ingrained and develop. I have learnt that I need to remember that I am not everyone and everyone is not me. It has taken patience to help me develop this.
Everyone knows the story of the tortoise and the hare. In most things, I am the hare, or at least I try to be. But if lockdown has shown me anything, it is that we need to show a little more patience and build slowly but robustly over time. So I am definitely trying to channel my inner tortoise!
Mark Chatley - always learning 