Lean Quote: Patience is to Be Calm No Matter What Happens

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Patience is not the ability to wait. Patience is to be calm no matter what happens, constantly take action to turn it to positive growth opportunities, and have faith to believe that it will all work out in the end while you are waiting."   — Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

In the pursuit of peace and joy in life, one of the most important traits we need to develop to go further is patience. The dictionary defines patience as a state of endurance under difficult circumstances. It is also the ability to wait in the face of delay without becoming negative.

We definitely aren’t born with it. We can definitely work on developing more patience, instead of thinking of it as genetic we should think of it as a skill. People who are patient are not free of frustration rather they are able to tolerate frustration without becoming negative or exhibit signs of frustration and long suffering. Being patient also doesn’t mean just restraint or tolerance it is a much deeper emotion, patience is a form of compassion.

Never confuse patience with apathy. Being patient doesn’t include disconnecting from our emotions and feelings. It means accepting how we feel about a given situation and doing whatever needs to be done. Being patient means accepting both how you feel about a given situation and what you can realistically do about it. To be patient doesn’t mean to surrender and just give up hope, being patient does not mean being passive.

Patience means preparing ourselves to face people and situations in the world, which we would have otherwise reacted very poorly. Patience also means that you stick through the tough times, we may all start with a lot of motivation initially but it fades over a period of time, we need patience to see our projects, work and plans to the very end. Patience is also a sign of wisdom; it grows over the years slowly but steadily.

Just like any skill we build patience by practicing more and more, we need to be aware if are being impatient and rectify ourselves. Especially when times get tough, being patient is crucial in staying calm every situation. But start small always; if we train ourselves to work around the little pains and irritations we can handle the big ones.