Lesson one – Pursuing Happiness – Practice Patience – September 2009
Learning to wait is a very powerful thing. There are some things that just can’t happen now, no matter how hard I try. For instance two months ago I could barely walk 10 minutes without stopping. Now I can walk for one half hour without getting overly tired.
When I can truly accept that something is impossible to have now, then the waiting becomes easier. It’s actually a relief to know that I have no power over it. It frees my energy to do other things.
Examples: The farmer can’t plant seeds one day and expect a full cornfield the next day. He has to wait. Likewise, I can’t get served in a restaurant if there is a line ahead of me and no empty tables...
One definition of patience is "doing something else in the meantime". One of the things I hate most is waiting in lines. So, I am practicing enjoying the waiting in little ways.
- I take a magazine to read until we get a table at a restaurant.
- In the supermarket, I look at what the person ahead has in their cart and try guessing what they eat for dinner. I also look at the National Enquirer or other rag. Sometimes I make up alternate headlines.
- I don’t like waiting for a prescription to be filled. To avoid that, I try to think ahead and drop my prescriptions off and come back later. That eliminates waiting completely. If I know that I will have to wait at the pharmacy, I usually go read the magazines or wander the aisles. Both activities are better than sitting around with nothing to do.
- Waiting in the doctor’s office – I take my own magazine to read – the ones they usually have don’t interest me.
There’s an old saying in sales "If we take care of the little sales, the big sales will take care of themselves"
I’d like to paraphrase that by saying "If I take care of the little waiting, the big waiting (like losing weight, getting in shape, and waiting for my stocks to go back up) will take care of itself.
I’m starting to find out that works for me. I will keep you posted on my progress.
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