The most advanced thing you can do is the basics – consistently.
In a world that screams for instant results, where notifications ping with the promise of immediate gratification, the idea of waiting, of letting things unfold at their own pace, feels almost physically painful.
We crave the lightning strike of immediate results, but growth, real growth, is a slow, almost imperceptible creep.
It’s a frustrating paradox: the most profound achievements, the ones that truly shift the trajectory of our lives, are built on the most fundamental actions, repeated with unwavering consistency.
Progress happens too slowly to notice. Like watching grass grow, you only see the change when you look back years later.
In fact, growth is driven by compounding, which always takes time.
Endurance is key – compounding works best when you can give a plan years or decades to grow.
Setbacks, however? They arrive with the force of a wrecking ball, and happen too quickly to ignore.
They shatter our carefully laid plans and demand immediate attention. These moments of crisis often trigger the very impatience we strive to overcome.
Personally, I struggle to hold myself back after every dip in the stock market. The urge to react, to buy in discounted equities, to do something to take advantage of the lower price, is almost overwhelming.
Similarly, even the seemingly stable act of staying in a job requires a certain level of patience – enduring periods of stagnation and trusting that consistent effort will eventually lead to growth and opportunity
In a study, participants indicated how impatient they would feel in response to different scenarios.
Results indicated three scenarios that create a “perfect storm” for impatience:
- The stakes are relatively high (traffic on the way to a favorite band’s concert),
- The state of waiting is unpleasant (no seats and no distractions at the DMV), and
- When someone is clearly to blame for the delay (the lab forgot to process your medical test).
However, some people were more patient than others:
- Those who were more comfortable with open-ended situations and more emotionally stable
- Those who were more emotionally skilled and better at self-regulation
- Those who are agreeable and high in empathy
Upon self-reflection, I feel like I’m beginning to understand that the grand patience required for the truly significant things in life – building a fulfilling career, nurturing deep relationships, achieving lasting personal growth – is not some innate gift.
It’s a muscle, developed and strengthened through countless small acts of patience in the everyday.
It’s in the willingness to wait for the coffee to brew, to truly listen to a friend without interrupting, to persevere through a challenging task one step at a time.
It’s in these small moments, these daily exercises in restraint and trust, that we cultivate the enduring patience needed to navigate the inevitable delays and embrace the slow, steady rhythm of real and lasting growth.
The urge to react, to do, is always there. But I’m learning to see the value in not doing. In letting time do its work. In remembering that the most important investments are often the ones we can’t see, the ones that compound silently, over decades.
After all, the patience you need for big things, is developed by your patience with the little things.