If you don't expect yourself to be perfect but believe instead that you're always learning, if you see the value in working at something rather than buying your way out of it, if you acknowledge that there is more than one right way, then your patience will soar along with your happiness in love, your joy in the moment, and your satisfaction with yourself.

- from the book jacket of The Power of Patience by M.J. Ryan

Excerpted from Connie's Life Coaching blog entry dated March 30, 2008. To read the complete article, click on the link below. You won't want to miss the treat awaiting you in the last paragraph!

It is the end of March in New England. The calendar tells us that we have officially been in Spring for ten days now. But are we? It sure doesn't feel like it, with periodic days of snow/sleet/rain and temperatures in the 20's and 30's, brought down to the teens with the wind chill factor. When WILL Spring really arrive? And after that, Summer - my favorite time of year? We've had the Lion; now where's the Lamb?!

I have been feeling like a kid waiting for a birthday that never seems to come. Oh, the anticipation - the party, the friends, the fun, the presents, the cake! Days seemed to pass to excruciatingly slowly, back in those days. And even today, when I am looking forward to some special event, the days sometimes still seem to inch along, snail-like. [Of course, I no longer am impatient for birthdays to arrive, but that's another story!]

But lately, I've been looking at this a whole new way, thanks to - among other things - some study in Buddhism, the works of Eckhart Tolle, and a chance comment from a friend.

Let's start with the friend, who put it this way: "Without winter, there can be no summer. How would we ever know or appreciate the joys of summer without having gone through winter first?"

How indeed! Life is full of contrasts, which together help us know and explore the whole range of what it means to be human: winter-summer, hot-cold, day- night, good-evil, war-peace, rich-poor, young-old, sound-silence, male-female, together-alone, fat-thin, love-hate (actually, it's love-indifference, but that, too, is another story). How can any one of these things exist, without it's opposite?

So, what does all this have to do with Patience?

It all has to do with recognizing these things...

One look at the Table of Contents in M.J. Ryan's The Power of Patience and you're hooked. Here are listed just some of the promised "gifts" of Patience, with a chapter devoted to each one:

• Excellence
• Harmony with nature
• Better decisions
• More learning
• A longer and more stress-free life
• Greater tolerance and empathy
• Happier love relationships
• Better parenting skills
• More of what we want
• Soul growth

"Without patience," Ryan writes, "we can't truly learn from the lessons life throws at us; we're unable to mature.... If we want to live wider and deeper lives, and not just faster ones, we have to practice patience - patience with ourselves, with other people, and with the big and small circumstances of life itself."

Check it out: The Power of Patience: How to Slow the Rush and Enjoy More Happiness, Success, and Peace of Mind Every Day by M.J. Ryan. Broadway Books, 2003.

Have fun with this short animated video on Patience on YouTube, created by Vancouver Film School student Scott Campbell.

LifeWork Letter is a complimentary monthly e-Newsletter from Connie Komack and LifeWork Enterprises, with tips, quotes, and short articles designed to enrich, empower, and forward the growth of your life, career, or business.

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