Patience is something we all struggle with, instant gratification is what we expect, and when it doesn’t happen we get frustrated. We expect our sales people to understand how to sell better after a one day sales workshop, our leaders to take a two day leadership workshop and have their people figured out. We expect to go to the gym for two weeks and see a big transformation. Patience is a huge part to any successful project. To be able to stay patient, we must keep our eyes on the progress of the project, not the results. Also when it comes to results, they come in many different forms. It might be bottom line impact, positive atmosphere, better attendance, higher customer sat scores, etc… On the personal side, it could be saving money, losing weight, spending more time with your family, carving out more time to spend on hobbies, etc… We must remained laser focused on progress moving forward. Also, we must remind everyone why we are doing the things we are doing and keep the end goal in mind.
Staying consciously aware of our long term goals can help us from getting frustrated by short term obstacles. We shouldn’t measure results too early, but, we should stay focused overall on what we are trying to accomplish. For example, Sarah, my wife, is training for a half-marathon that is coming up in 3 months. When you train for a marathon you start by knowing and understanding what the final goal is, which is to be able to complete the race. You must keep your eyes on the long term goal of finishing the race, and at the same time be able to look at the daily positive movement. Sarah actually began her training schedule three months before the race. This is vital to staying patient. It’s also important to know what the long term goals are. By knowing our long term goals in any area of our life; we don’t have to ask “why are we doing this?” We know why, because it ultimately takes us to our long term vision.
