Are you patient or complacent?

February 9, 2021

Love is patient, love is kind…

If you’ve ever been to a wedding, you’ve most likely heard these words that stem from the popular bible verse in 1 Corinthians 13:4. One of the most noted holidays in February centers around Valentine’s Day — hearts, candy, flowers, love and affection.

I’m not here to talk about love. I’m more intrigued with the word patience.

Would you consider yourself a patient person? How’s your patience when you’re in traffic? What about with your boss or an employee? Are you a patient person at home or in long lines at the grocery store? Truth be told, I’ve had years of practice with not being patient.

Patience, I’ve learned, has its benefits as long as it’s not an excuse for complacency. Patience allows you time to think and reflect. It gives us permission to be in the moment and know that there’s more to learn, explore, hope for and eventually achieve.

The problem I see too often with clients is that they use patience as an excuse to not take action. They wait for the right time, opportunity, additional research, to move out of the misery they’re in at their job or at home. They’re complacent which results in them remaining unhappy.

At some point you can’t keep kicking the can down the road for the right time, because eventually the road will end. That happened to someone I know. An executive stayed in a miserable job for so long and instead of taking steps to make it better, he let the resentment and difficult situation escalate which resulted in his termination. He waited too long to begin preparing for his Plan B. That caused him to not be complacent or patient, it caused him to be desperate.

To avoid that from happening to you consider which describes you best. Are you patient or complacent?

COMPLACENT	PATIENT
Unsure of how to start so you don’t Focus on the large goal, feel overwhelmed and defeated before you start Lack confidence in your abilities due to assumptions Get discouraged with setbacks and stop moving forward	Surround yourself with others that have been in your shoes and ask questions Take time to think of action steps in small doses and celebrate the small successes Find out what plans need to be put in place and set up a roadmap to get it done Learn from what doesn’t go right and enhance your next steps as a result

As you can see, it’s possible to be patient and take action to get the results you want. It’s about appreciating the journey, breaking it down to manageable steps and receiving the right support to help you get there.

If you know someone who might like these newsletters, please share it with them.  If we haven’t spoken in a while and you’d like to catch up let’s schedule a time to chat.

To your success,

Tina Asher
Business/Career Coach • Trainer • Author
Build U Up Consulting