Patience may be one of the finest human qualities, yet it is undervalued, probably because it is silent and its fruits take time to appear.
The values of immediacy vs. the values of certainty
“Everything comes in its own time to the person who can wait.” – François Rabelais
What dominates our choices are impulses, emotion, and the quick gain despite long-term consequences. The image-driven society has spawned a generation of dissatisfied individuals who cannot wait to see the fruits of long labor. In essence, the screen-based society has definitively turned its back on a value that has been part of our lives for centuries, namely patience. Without patience, would we have been able to build Corinthian temples, cathedrals, or pyramids? Of course, past societies were far from idyllic, partly because the enduring structures from those distant times were often the product of servile and forced labor. Nevertheless, how can we reintegrate patience into an era that seems to have definitively moved on from this concept?
Patience still exists among the elite
Patience still exists; it even characterizes the elites of all countries. The lack of patience is visible among ordinary people, and this is not a coincidence. To dominate others, one must first learn to dominate oneself, a long and arduous exercise. Self-control necessarily involves developing a degree of patience. This is the same reason why people no longer really read. Their relationship with time is completely different.
If you want to be successful, develop your patience
What is striking when surfing the web for a few hours is the abundance of videos selling a quick way to become a millionaire. These messages cater to our natural inclination towards laziness and shortcuts. They are effective because they tell us what we want to hear instead of the harsh truth that anything of value takes time to build.
Before having, one must be; before being, one must do
We become what we do, and we obtain what we are.
The internet bypasses being and pretends that one can have by doing without being.
To change our thoughts, habits, values, in short, our being, takes a lot of time. It is because we have the patience to do the right things for a long time that we are able to change our being and thus achieve the corresponding having. A trivial yet telling example concerns doctors. They study for many years in the shadows, earning almost nothing. Then, after about ten years, they graduate and start practicing a profession that earns them a lot of money. The years of study are the necessary period for their transformation. They had to act as doctors before becoming doctors and obtaining the corresponding status. To be a doctor you must be patient (pun intended), and this applies to all life projects.
How to develop your patience?
Patience is intimately linked to the idea of delayed gratification. If you are able to train yourself daily to not enjoy everything all the time and thus wait for the reward of your actions, you can develop your patience.
