May 12, 2021

The Speed of Patience

Why, as a nation, are we in such a hurry to get things done yesterday?!?!

It’s the blessing and curse of technology today, thing moving at light speed through the internet, communication and many other ways. People are growing up and being taught that information is not only easily assessable but rapidly available. If you don’t have what you need and your website takes longer than 5 seconds to load up, you may be cursing and screaming at your laptop, thinking there is a major problem!

I remember growing up in Brooklyn, NY, excited to get on the road after getting my learner’s permit and pulling my dad to the car so we could drive around. This was going to be an exciting day because I was going to test the big bad highway, the BQE (or for the non-locals, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway). Well, the day didn’t quite turn out the way that I thought it would.

If you have ever driven in NYC, driving is like a challenge. How fast can you get off the break when the light turns green? Literally, wait for more than 2 seconds and hear the blaring horns, and sometimes rude voices, blaring out at you to get going. I think I experienced this 3 to 4 times from the house and I wasn’t even on the highway yet!

Finally, I reached the BQE and was driving the posted speed limit of 45mph however it felt like I was a turtle in the middle of the Daytona 500! Cars honking, swerving around me and eventually, my dad kindly telling me to speed up. I did and it felt so rushed. The joy was gone and it just seemed like I was just trying to survive instead of enjoying the experience.

Have you had days like that?

Rushing to get from point A to B, from one task to the next, just to complete it?

That first day driving was over 30 years ago, way before the tech boom that we see today. Like I said before, technology is getting even faster and it seems like humans either struggle to keep up and take the challenge to do so. What happens is that subconsciously, we are being programmed to “have it now”, despite the cost.

So, you may ask, what is the harm in going a little faster?

· Loss of focus

· Not appreciating the journey

· Overemphasis on the end goal and not enough time in the here and now

· Not having a basic plan or map of the journey or task, causing unnecessary errors

· Having others frustrated with your excessive pace or getting frustrated with yourself

When taking a deeper dive at this list, do you see a pattern?

Breaking them down, they fall into two major categories, which are internal patience and external patience.

Internal vs external patience

Internal patience focuses on the mindset and the thoughts that you have about a situation. Think of it as your internal fuel. Are you driving your thoughts with the regular gas or amping them up with jet fuel? You would put aviation fuel in your car and throw off the whole engine so why are you fueling your thoughts with things that cause you to rush unnecessarily?

External patience focuses on the events and the actions that you carry out around a situation. This of it as the car. The vehicle that you take your journey on, be it a slow moving and reliable Honda Accord vs the Vector W8 with 1400 horsepower. Yes, they both will get you there but one you could afford to wreck and the other would financially wreck you in an accident!

Both internal and external patience are critical however the more important one is your internal patience. If you can discipline your mind to exercise patient thoughts, the actions that you try to achieve wont fare much better.

This is our focus for the total #ppe module on the mind:

Exercise Speed of Patience

Speed of patience (Rand, 2014, see also Rand, 2019) is the theme that you must master first before anything else is done because mindset is the key to all. With an optimized mindset, your thoughts become more organized and coherent, you think out and write down your map for the journey and then take the action steps that are necessary.

This is where the impatience sets in because people choose to take giant leaps to get to the end destination as quickly as possible. That is why we practice and teach Inspira Disciplina Ducatus…

“to learn, live and leave a legacy by doing something dynamic, no matter how small”

It doesn’t say something dynamic at breakneck speed! Actions, no matter how small, will get you there. These actions will compound when done right, allow you to see and experience the journey unfold and appreciate the success along the way because success is doing something dynamic now, not once you reach the destination.

Don’t believe me when I say do something small? Let me ask you this? If I offered you the choice, and you have to make a decision in 2 seconds, decide whether you want…

· 1 million dollars’ cash right now or

· 1 cent now and the profits after 30 days of doubling it every day?

What happens when you don’t exercise the speed of patience? What if you rushed through and didn’t take the time to think the situation through? You may go for the quick million but did you know that if you doubled a penny every day for 30 days, you would have over FIVE million!

Here’s another look of the speed of patience. Say you took the penny and doubled it for 7 days but impatient, and jumped to day 15, skipping 8 days, because you got impatient. Instead of over 5 million, you would only have over 80K. Your impatience cost you close to four million dollars.

Let me ask you, has not having patience cost you financially, emotionally, spiritually, mentally or physically?

Exercising the speed of patience

Today, more than ever, this is the time to exercise patience. In this environment of Covid-19, a lack of patience literally can cost you your life.

· Rushing through handwashing and not exercising patience can cost you

· Not taking caution and mentally rushing through taking off your mask and self-exposing yourself can cost you

· Rushing back to the open and not socially distancing because you are impatient and want to hit the beach can cost you

It's not a new concept but very powerful, as introduced by Dr. Paul Rand, who presented his findings to the Dept. of Defense. For another prospective on it, you can see his original work here.

My goal is to arm you with total protection during these times, the #ppe of you mind, body, heart and soul and this first module will start with the mind. I will introduce tools and techniques such as

· The Sunday of Silence

· Pen to Paper

You will understand how to explore how your mind works, ask yourself the importance questions for self-discovery and then, design and implement the necessary strategies to help you achieve the things that you desire.

And it all is enveloped with the concept of speed of patience.

Let’s begin your journey now and begin the process with the first step…

Inspira Disciplina Ducatus…

“to learn, live and leave a legacy by doing something dynamic, no matter how small”