Perhaps you can relate. One man was to meet his wife downtown and spend some time shopping with her. He waited patiently for 15 minutes. Then he waited impatiently for 15 minutes more. He didn’t have a way to contact her.
Steve Goodier
He began to pace. Seeing one of those old-timey photograph booths nearby – the kind that accepts coins into a slot and takes four shots while you pose on a small bench – he had an idea. He assumed the most ferocious expression he could manage, which wasn’t difficult under the circumstances, and in a few moments, he was holding four small prints that shocked even him.
He wrote his wife’s name on the back of the photographs and handed them to a clerk behind the desk. “If you see a small, dark lady with brown eyes and an apologetic expression, apparently looking for someone, would you please give her this?” he asked.
He then returned to his office content that, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then four photos must be a full-blown lecture.
His wife saved those pictures. She carries them in her purse now. Shows them to anyone who asks if she is married.
How are you with patience? One person calls it ‘wait training.’ Most of us do our fair share of waiting most every day. We wait for people. We wait in traffic and we wait in lines. We wait for the big event. We wait to hear about a new job. We wait to complete school or to retire. We wait to grow up or for maturity in a child. We wait for a decision to be made.
Patience is an essential quality of a happy life. After all, some things are worth waiting for. As Arnold Glasow reminds us, “You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.” Every day presents plenty of opportunities for wait training.
It’s our choice: we can resent waiting, accept it or try to get good at it. But one thing is certain – we will never avoid it. How is your wait training coming along?
~ Steve Goodier, http://www.lifesupportsystem.com