Patience for the Long Run
A new year is here, yet my mind keeps running and shortening the length and perspective of the time ahead, in both a good and bad sense. It’s been a whirlwind of a past few months getting accustomed to the “real world”, but it hasn’t been all that difficult if I’m being truly honest. Sure, a few things here and there could have gone a little better, but that desire to improve upon what’s controllable makes the journey all that much more worthwhile.
It’s been a while since I last posted so it’s good to get a fresh start and finally get back to typing away as numerous thoughts pour down through my fingertips. Those of you who know me well know that I’m quite intrigued by concepts that I contrive from my muses and inspirations and will ruminate on them for days, months, and even years on end. One of these interesting concepts that has captured my attention quite recently is the idea of executional patience. I have been a walking contradiction for the past four or so years in the sense that I preach focusing on the long-term vision of whatever it is that you are currently focused on achieving and enamored by, yet, I am quite impatient with the actualization of certain goals and ambitions. It even goes as far as being impatient over the fact that step 3 of over 100 is likely to take a bit longer than I wish it to be. This probably has to do with the insatiable passion for the vision in hand, but I won’t stray down that train of thought right now.
I came across an interesting article that touched upon the idea of of the interwoven nature of passion, patience, and execution in describing entrepreneurs and the so-called “wantreprenuers”. Here’s the article if you want to check that out by the way. Walking down the path or teetering on the seesaw or however you want to see the vision unfolding, there are always going to be these three pieces to the puzzle. Average people have one of the components down and great people have two of the components (likely the same two for everyone in this bracket), but there are only a mere number of legends who master all three. Patience will always be at the core of passion and execution. There is no exception to this rule I’ve found through study and excruciating self-practice.
Legacy is something I have been a profound proponent for building in one’s life. The money is all good as long as there is enough to provide a lifestyle that can support yourself and your family with the basic human necessities — anything in excess of that is purely a blessing of the world seeing extra value in you, sometimes maybe even a bit more than what you likely deserve. Likewise, having an ego to be the best at what you do is a double-edged sword that I’ve mentioned in a previous post in this Introspective Musing series. While providing a foundation for growth, it can cloud the core of the matter as it consumes you to focus your thoughts externally instead of internally and even breathe a sense of hatred within. Trust me, been there and done that, so I know it can be a good tactic for the short-run but extremely detrimental in the long-run if not quickly contained and re-framed.
It is the selfish desire of wanting as many people as possible feel affected by your presence positively (hate that I even have to explicitly mention that in 2019 but you know with the world nowadays…) that fuels the legacy aspect. How does patience come into play? Well, as mentioned in the earlier article linked above, it is about being altruistic with whatever it is you provide to your audience. The desire to build a platform and not compromise on the legacy in the midst of it for short-term gains require utmost patience and always proves worthwhile at the end of the day. This idea of executional patience only works if you work in accordance with the core of your laid out strategy; however, like anything in life, curve balls will be thrown at you, so you need to be able to adapt around the strategy from time to time.
As much as executional patience requires adaptability, adaptability requires just as much executional patience. What I mean by that is the willingness to stretch your mind and physical limits and executing upon this extra stretching in a diligent and consistent matter. I used to argue to my parents about the way the education system is set up here in the United States with everyone having to learn so many “useless” things. My dad would tell me that some stuff may become useless when you get older but it is the ability to be exposed to different areas of life and learning how to learn that proves useful in going through studying all these subjects that may be of no personal interest at the time. Fast forward some many years later and I’ve come to see what he was talking about, as I am looking to expand upon my understanding of history, reading more books (I always hated English in school and hated reading as a kid FYI), and picking up new languages such as Portuguese recently. Eu acho que é necessário aprender tantas perspectivas da vida — isso torna tudo muito mais bonito. I’ll let you translate that and hear the pronunciation of it to see if you might want to spontaneously learn Portuguese like me after my visit to Porto last year and random encounter having a conversation in Portuguese with my Brazilian Uber driver last Monday.
Back to adaptability requiring executional patience — you can’t simply expect to adapt and learn new things here and there just because you have to. You need to remain patiently executing these adaptations in order to master the building blocks that ultimately feed back into your strategy for growth and hopefully vision for some sort of legacy that you’ve defined. Whether it’s practicing a new language on a frequent basis (try out Duolingo to start if you’re interested), working out regularly (5–3–1 starter program and intermediate / advanced workout programfor those of you who want to start exercising more this year), eating healthier, reading everyday, or whatever, the consistency in executing on the task will provide focus, clarity, and purpose above all else.
Adapting, strategy, passion, execution, and patience — a lot of different topics I got to cover in this post. All of which seamlessly weave into one another like a beautiful tapestry if you allow yourself to see the “illusion in the madness” as some people would say. Years will pass by in no time in small chunks and the continued work in the lab will reap the reward if you’ll let it. Time for me to get back into my own internal / external sanctuary and continue practicing executional patience by refining some of the pieces in my “lab”. Catch you hopefully again this year before 2020 comes knocking.
“A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.” — Confucious
“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau
