Learning to Embrace Delays and Setbacks: A Guide to Patience

“As your patience grows it will get easier and easier to calm down and you will see patterns that you can work with.”

Scot Anderson, “Think Like A Billionaire Become A Billionaire”. 

Understand that there isn’t just you in the world. It’s you and so many others on this planet who need close to the same things at nearly the same time. We are all human after all. 

Depending on what your needs are, you will find yourself, trying to cultivate the characters that you find insufficient within yourself. You’ll find yourself, appreciating the situations good or bad, that train you how to get better in the good things you lack within yourself. For instance, I find myself caught up in situations that train me in patience. 

When I was a little girl, I found myself never getting to where I wanted to be fast enough. So, I would run everywhere. My mama would send me for a cup of water in the sitting room while I was in the bedroom, and I would find myself running where I would have to be pacing. “Hey, don’t run. That doesn’t require you to run.” I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand why I was not running. If I can get it fast, why not? Why isn’t everybody running? It’s exciting to get what you want immediately. It’s pretty exhilarating to get to where you want to be fast. 

The problem with that is that’s not how real life works and we are in real life. Real life requires patience. It requires waiting. It requires not getting what you want sometimes. And that sucks if you grew up getting whatever you want immediately.

I had to learn later on why I didn’t have to run from my bedroom to the sitting room to pick a cup of water for my mama. I had to understand that walking, pacing, placing one foot in front of the other, standing in line, would actually get you what you want, and not rushing.

When I proceeded into secondary school, I had to wait. There were just so many of us in high school that if I ever rushed a teacher, they would not give me what I wanted but if I sat and waited, I would get what I wanted. 

It gets worse once you get into university, worse if you get into the field of adulthood without school. The bank, hospitals, market…it’s everywhere. You either wait or never get a thing in life. That business, good spouse, profits on an investment…if you don’t know how to wait, you won’t get anywhere in life. If you don’t know how to wait, you’ll lose everything you start building. 

Of course there were people who didn’t get the chance to be told, “Hey! Don’t run,” training like I did. Such people to this day think they own the world. They end up missing out on so many good things because they just can’t wait. I get it. It’s not easy to wait. 

Even with all the training I got, I still found myself running and tripping over myself. I have scars to prove. What I’m trying to say is, waiting will get you the right things. You’ll only have unavoidable damage. This damage will be a good lesson. 

The old saying is true, “Good things come to those who wait”. How do I know? It doesn’t matter how much you rush an Internet connection it just won’t work if it’s not meant to work. That bank teller won’t work on you until all ten people in front of you are attended to. You either wait or go out without getting what you came for. Then you’ll have to waste more money on fuel, stand in line again and wait like you had to do the day before. So, wait. 

You’ll either patiently wait for that little dial button to roll until that TikTok video loads or you never get to watch that video. Simple. 

Real life is humbling and exciting for patient people just as it is very frustrating for impatient people. Every area of our lives requires patience from us. Whether it’s at the traffic lights, could be at the bank, the restaurant and the toilet. There’s a line everywhere because it’s not just you in the world, there’s many of us.

Whether it’s at the traffic lights, could be at the bank, the restaurant and the toilet. There’s a line everywhere because it’s not just you in the world, there’s many of us.

Sefora Darling.

There’s a bunch of us out here and so little (or enough depending on how you see things and/if you’re patient) to serve each one of us at the end of the day. You better learn to wait. It’s for your own good especially if you want peace of mind.