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Meanderings from Jean's Desk....
Blog Archive 
June 3, 2013: Uncovering More Paradoxes
May 15, 2013: Seeing Those Around Us
May 1, 2013: Scarcity or Abundance: Choose
April 15, 2013: Being Where You Are!
April 1, 2013: Leadership Is Being Vulnerable
March 15, 2013: Leadership and Shedding Skin
Feb 17, 2013: Leadership Isn't Always Romantic
Dec 15, 2012: The Space Between The Notes
Nov 1, 2012: The Ostrich Effect
Oct 15, 2012: Who Are You Being When You Are Doing Your Life?
Oct 1, 2012: Constructive Interaction
Video
2009 Kenosha Business of the Year:
LMI Packaging Solutions, Inc.
Patience
This is a word that I understand intellectually, but have a long way to go before it is engrained in my life, and thus wisdom.
Patience is a virtue! Is that so?!?!? For me it has often seemed like an annoying pain in my butt. I have outlined plans and strategies and negotiated and schemed only to get parts of what I was after. And then, when the universe was ready, I got the rest and more. Often, it seemed, after I had stopped trying so hard.
What could this mean. Clearly we can not stand by the wayside and hope our dreams will come true. Hadn’t I been taught over and over in CEO school that HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY.
I do believe that we must strive toward our goals but somewhere in there must be a good strong mix of patience or we will miss the joy of the journey. I imagine it is like getting to the top of Mount McKinley having never looked up from the path. The view is amazing at 20,000 feet but so much can be missed along the way if we are steadfast on our journey and never stop to be where we are. The journey provides for community and conversation like none other, scenery that is often more beautiful than that at the peak, and the opportunity to face and overcome challenges in a way that provides for whole new ways of being. True, the bragging rights of reaching the pinnacle are great, but what we will talk about for years to come is the journey to get there. Patience allows us to be fully present in the best part of the adventure.
What does this “patience’ look like then? We set our sights and we stay in the present moment, taking everything in along the way. We have bad days and good days and we honor each of them as part of the experience. We are patient and as our good friend Webster suggests, we bear our pains and trials calmly and without complaint. In this non ‘fight or flight’ state we actually find new paths we might not have seen if we had not looked up. We take the time to keep ourselves strong instead of burning out half way through the mission. We are a community learning and growing together and doing amazing things. We stand together at the top of the mountain, not alone, celebrating our victory together.
My spiritual friend, Mark Nepo, says it best when he writes:
“So when hurt or afraid or confused, when feeling urgent to find your place on this Earth, hard as it is, wait... and things as you fear them will, more often than not, shrink into the hard irreplaceable beauty of things as they are...of which you have no choice but to be a part.”
Where is your lack of patience keeping you separate from the life around you? Be in the journey!
