Patience and perseverance are what it takes to be successful at anything. That statement could send you in circles if you only understand the statement on its surface or have a common understanding of the two. It’s thought that one cannot possess both patience and perseverance. Most see patience as being still and perseverance as the opposite. This makes statements like the opening one sound like the garbage that comes out of the mouth of most “gurus” that never really expose their secret to success.

We live on a clock we can’t see. We want some things that seem like it will take a lifetime to obtain while seeing others around our age or worse, younger seemingly on a different, shorter road leading to what is your goal. We need to take the clock and comparisons away. We then need to know exactly what patience and perseverance are. Patience is the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. Perseverance is steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. They can coexist. Let’s discuss…

Patience is tough. I struggle with it. I can understand the issues with attempting to keep it together while waiting on something that you feel is a couple of years late as it is. The times we live in don’t help either. It’s a microwave society. We want everything now. Things we once needed to wait for, we get almost instantly. It was not that long ago when a person would wait 10 seconds for a webpage to load, walk away from the computer when downloading music or a movie, or make a trip to a library to research something.

Now, you have about 1-2 seconds to get your webpage to load or that visitor is off to the next site. Streaming has made downloading obsolete and if you do decide to download something the average household internet in the US is 40mb/sec. This is lightning fast compared to the 0.5mb/sec of dial-up speed. A trip to the library? Well, when is the last time you’ve visited? If you need to know something you pick up your phone and ask a question. The current technology doesn’t exactly promote patience as a virtue.

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Perseverance is the virtue that is pushed. Like much of the English language perseverance is used instead of another word. Persistence. Persistence is firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action despite difficulty or opposition. This and patience are opposites. Perseverance takes persistence and adds the ability to deal with delays on the way to success. It is an adjustment that will take you from running into the same roadblock over and over again to taking a step back to observe the situation and adjust.

Adjusting can be waiting for the roadblock to pass, going around the roadblock, or studying the roadblock to go through it. Patience is not simply standing still. Patience is understanding. Patience is humility. Patience is enabling yourself the capacity to operate without a clock counting down in your head. Patience is realizing while you are “waiting” you can prepare yourself for what is ahead. Patience is not sitting on a couch waiting for it all to work itself out. Let’s stop disrespecting this amazing virtue by knowing exactly what it is and what it does for us. It’s life-changing.

In closing, Patience vs Perseverance isn’t a battle at all. They work together in perfect harmony. Knowing this will help in your pursuit of whatever it is you are striving for. The trouble with patience may get easier with age but the quicker you embrace this virtue, the quicker you can put these two major weapons together. These will propel you toward your goal and may place you on a shorter path to your goal even if it looks like the opposite. Work until you hit a roadblock. Stop, assess the issue then begin working again. Repeat.

Food for thought…You do the dishes.

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