Patience is a virtue. Patience: “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble or suffering without getting angry or upset.” Patience is a skill and action easier said than done, for sure. We’ve all had it preached to us as kids to be patient, whether it was a toy we wanted from a sibling and we had to “wait our turn” or sitting in the car on a road trip and asking the question “are we there yet.” Well, things don’t change much as we get older. The subject and reasoning change and becomes more serious, but the practice of patience is real. I’ve had two different situations recently that have gotten me thinking about patience and how practicing patience is critical.
Fishing is one of my favorite past times. I could spend hours in the early morning or the evening on the boat searching for the best spot, or where the fish may be in the lake. The interesting thing is that sometimes it’s a fish every other cast and some days it’s empty hooks. World-renowned hunter and angler Steven Rinella said about fishing that it’s like asking a question every time you cast the line. And nothing on the other end of the line is somehow a satisfactory answer to the question. I had this moment recently and I began to think about how this relates to life. For me, I can be so patient fishing. Quietly and strategically casting and waiting, working the lure towards the boat, and accepting the fact that there’s no fish on the line. Patiently waiting for the right spot or the right cast.
The anomaly to me is when the boat is docked and the fishing ends, reality sets in, and things happen that make me wonder how I struggle to be patient. The weekend ends and back to work. And for a lot of us, I believe work is a big tester of patience. Maybe it’s that co-worker who always seems to be making work a little more difficult or you’re doing everything right, taking on responsibility and learning the ropes to be the top candidate for a promotion that’s yet to come. You know what I’m talking about. For me, it’s been growing a new company. Feeling like I’m doing everything right, hitting the right contacts, building out a long prospect list, only to feel like the growth is slower than I want it to be.
That’s where I believe the key to practicing patience lies. The moments where we can’t force something to happen. Where we’re at the mercy of others, the boss, the market we’re in. How we respond in those moments where we are truly tested is where success in patience comes. See the reason I think the fishing analogy is so effective, is because with each cast theirs hope. With many fish in the lake, it’s clear they’re there; it’s only a matter of time before one takes the bait. That’s the hope in fishing. Romans 8:25 says, “But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Hope breeds motivation towards success. It gives us the feeling of working towards something and helps avoid the feeling of being bogged down or halted in steps towards the goal. In fishing that hope is constantly there because there’s fish somewhere in the lake. If we can take that same hope from fishing into our careers what would success look like then? How patient could we be? How long could we wait?
See, this is why patience is a virtue. A virtue is “a behavior showing high moral standard.” So having hope in the future, trusting the process as we’ve discussed in the past and practicing patience holds us to the high moral standard that allows for success. So whether it was the constant waiting as a child, career positions, waiting for s job, etc., Have hope. Practice patience. Know that your patience is going to be tested, but you can do this.
WORKOUT
Patience takes practice, it takes work; much like our fitness journey. Oftentimes in the fitness journey, we get impatient waiting for results we are constantly checking our numbers, looking in the mirror or testing our progress. If we apply the same hope and practice to patience in fitness that we do in life, we will be able to hold ourselves to the high standard that breeds success in that journey. To practice patience in our fitness journey we are going to continue with the same standard set-up that we’d been using in the past.
For this workout use the WOD app or a stopwatch. We are going to perform 40sec work and 20 sec of rest. Go through each block three times. Take a minute break after each block is complete.
Block 1:
- Air Squats
- Lunges – Left leg
- Lunges – Right leg
- Squat Holds
Block 2:
- Burpees
- Push-ups
- Shoulder Taps
- Inch Worms
Block 3:
- Crunches Burpees
- Side Bends – Right Side
- Side Bends – Left Side
- Leg Raise Hold
Hammer and Anvil 