Deploying patience. That’s such a Gary Vee thing to say.
I think about patience often. I did tonight, which is the genesis of this post.
Tonight I sat on the edge of the bed in my hotel room and gazed out my 5th floor window at a beautiful Florida sunset. There were some clouds in the sky to provide the backdrop for beautiful colors. I didn’t take more than about fifteen minutes from the time that that I noticed it until it was finished. Fifteen minutes isn’t a long time, but it can be if you’re not accustomed to sitting still that long.
Sunsets and sunrises are amazing events. I don’t think that I’ve ever met a person that disliked them. Nobody thinks they’re ugly or overrated, but how often do I take 15 minutes at the beginning or end of my day to sit and watch. Not often enough.
Being patient during one of these solar events is important. They’re constantly changing. I was amazed tonight how fast the sun passed through a cloud. Without that reference point I would have said that it was quite slow. Seeing it behind the cloud changed my opinion.
There were three contrails in the sky. As the sunset progressed, the contrails reflected the light differently than the clouds around them. As the background cloud when darker, the contrails alternately blazed brightly.
I admit, there were times that I struggled with impatience. “That’s good”. “I’ve seen enough”. “I need to get back to work.” “I need to go write this down”. We all do it, but when we don’t stay until the end, we miss out on something. We only get a partial experience. It made me think of people who leave a baseball game in the bottom of the 7th or top of the 8th inning. When I see that I think, “There’s lots of baseball left. So much can happen”. I feel vindicated when the home team makes a bottom of the ninth comeback.
Some things just take time. We need to have patience. Whether it’s at a traffic light, a restaurant, the line at Disney World or retirement savings, things take time. Our turn will come.
Tonight I thought again about patience in the context of my life. I expect that I’ll live to be around 120 years old given the pace of medical advancements. I joke with my family and friends that I’m ready to retire, and in some ways I am. I’m 45. If I live to be 120, then I’ve barely started the second third of my life. I’ve done an incredible amount so far, and I’m not even halfway finished! That gets me excited. That helps me understand how much time I have. Not time to goof off or be a slacker, but to work on and develop skills like writing a blog or managing a business, or building a real estate portfolio. Time to be patient.
Patience. Such a little word, but a challenging skill.
I encourage you to think about how you can deploy a little more patience in your life. While you’re doing that, sit back and enjoy a sunset.
Image by Tomasz Marciniak from Pixabay