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The Power of Financial Patience

 

DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT: LIFE'S COSMIC EQUATION

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***THIS ARTICLE WAS FOUND AT: http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2011/03/08/the-power-of-patience/ WE ARE JUST SHARING THIS AWESOME ARTICLE WITH YOU, WE DID NOT WRITE IT!***

The Power of Patience

Published on - March 8th, 2011 (by J.D. Roth) 

When I was young, I had no patience. I wanted everything, and I wanted it now. No wonder, then, that I found myself with over $20,000 in credit-card debt just a few years out of college. I was spending to obtain a lifestyle that I wouldn’t be able to afford until I was older. Much older.

I’m not the only one with this problem. Many young adults graduate from college or leave home, and suddenly find themselves in reduced circumstances. They’re used to the standard of living they enjoyed at home with their parents. Rather than wait until they can afford similar luxuries, they buy them on credit. They forget that their parents had to work twenty or thirty years to be able to afford the things they have.

This impatience is costly. It leads to debt, and it starts a cycle of excessive consumption and lifestyle inflation.

The power of patience
I’m entering middle age now, and so are most of my friends. As we get older, an interesting thing has happened. Suddenly, we’re able to afford the things we used to want so badly. Sometimes we buy them; sometimes we don’t.

It’s fun to watch the choices people make. I see folks who were willing to live in cheap apartments for a decade or more now buying houses. But they’re paying cash for the entire thing instead of carrying a mortgage. Their patience has paid off.

I’m seeing people who have toiled for years at tough jobs finally getting big breaks. Others quietly saved and invested while everyone around them was spending (or abandoning the stock market); they’re now poised to retire early — if they want to.

Not all who wait reap the rewards, of course, but many do. Patience doesn’t guarantee success, but it dramatically increases the odds. Here are just a few of the ways patience can help you achieve your financial goals:

• Patience lets your money grow. The longer you hold onto your money, the more you have of it. But more than that, time is the magic ingredient in the power of compounding, which lets your pool of money expand every year.

 

• Patience teaches you discipline. When I first learned to use the 30-day rule, it revolutionized my shopping habits. Instead of buying what I wanted now, I waited 30 days. Most of the time, I realized I could live without whatever seemed so urgent. But even when I did end up buying what was on the list, I felt better about my decision. Why? Because I’d exercised discipline. Patience helps prevent mistakes.

 

• Patience allows you to seize opportunities. If you’re willing to wait instead of buying today, you’re able to spend time comparison shopping or looking for free and cheap alternatives. If you’re in no rush, you can even practice predatory shopping — waiting for bargains and extreme markdowns that let you save big bucks.

 

• Patience lets you discover what’s important. As you age, your values change. If you’re willing to wait, you learn what truly matters to you. Patience helps you practice conscious spending.

 

• Patience keeps you sane. Patience means opting out of the relentless drive for the new. It means not caring about fashion. It means not giving in to fads and trends. It means buyinglast year’s model — and keeping it until it dies. Because you don’t have to worry aboutkeeping up with the Joneses, you quietly live a contented life.

Patience leads to wealth and happiness. (It leads to each independently, not as a package.) But it can be tough to practice patience if you’re plugged into television, radio, and the internet. Our society doesn’t believe in patience. Our society is all about Now.

The Culture of Now
We live in a Culture of Now. We’re constantly bombarded by messages trying to convince us to buy now, to spend now, to have what we want this very moment. Nobody preaches patience. Nobody explains that the cost of Now is a loss of your future. (That is, it’s generally more expensive — in time and money — to buy something now than it is to wait until you can afford it. For more on this, see our recent discussion of the time-value of money and last fall’s article aboutPresent Me and Future Me.)

But if you can learn to be patient, the world opens up to you.

I’m not talking about waiting until you’re 80 to enjoy life — I want to enjoy life today — I’m talking about taking things as they come in their proper time. Relish the moment you’re in, and accept it for what it is. If you’re 25 and burdened with student loans, accept that. Set a goal, make a plan to meet that goal, and then work hard to achieve it. Be patient along the way. You will get out of debt, you will buy a house, you will save enough for retirement. But you’re not going to do all of that today. It’ll take time, which is something you have plenty of.

Be patient, and that patience will be rewarded.

 

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How to be Patient

 

DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT: LIFE'S COSMIC EQUATION

"Because Your Life is Worth it!"

 

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***THIS ARTICLE COMES FROM: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTCS_78.htm***

 

How to be Patient

Learning to Stay Calm

The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it open. 
– Arnold Glasgow, American humorist

Here's the problem: You're waiting for someone to finish compiling a report that you need for a meeting. Because of an issue that came up, you're already 15 minutes late.

You can feel your body getting tense, and you're getting quite cross. You start sweating, and suddenly you yell at the person for being slow and putting you behind schedule. You can tell she's hurt, but you can't help it. She's making you late!

Does this sound familiar?

Many of us are impatient at times. Losing control of our patience hurts not only us, but those around us. Impatience raises our stress level and can even cause physical harm to our bodies. Being impatient can also damage relationships.

In this article, we'll examine strategies that you can use to be more patient.

Why Practice Patience?

Others often see impatient people as arrogant, insensitive, and impulsive. They can be viewed as poor decision makers, because they make quick judgments or interrupt people. Some people will even avoid impatient people, because of their poor people skills and bad tempers.

People with these personality traits are unlikely to be at the top of the list for promotions to leadership positions. Impatience can even affect relationships at home.

The more patient you are with others, the likelier you are to be viewed positively by your peers and your managers, not to mention your family and friends.

Signs of Impatience

How do you know when you're being impatient? You will probably experience one of more of the following symptoms:

• Shallow breathing (short breaths).
• Muscle tension.
• Hand clenching/tightening.
• Jiggling/restless feet.
• Irritability/anger.
• Anxiety/nervousness.
• Rushing.
• Snap/quick decisions.

Finding Your Causes

If you experience the symptoms of impatience, your next step is to discover the true cause. Many of us have "triggers." These could be people, phrases, or specific situations (like rush-hour traffic) that regularly cause us to enter an impatient frame of mind.

Make a list of things that cause you to become impatient. If you're having trouble identifying your triggers, use these tips:

• Stop and think about the last time you were impatient. What caused it? You can narrow this down to the root cause by using the 5 Whys technique.
• Ask your family, friends, and co-workers about your impatience. Chances are that they know what gets you "wound up".
• Many people become impatient due to physical factors such as hunger, dehydration, or fatigue. Analyze your body the next time you start to feel impatient. A simple remedy might be a snack and a glass of water!
• Keep a journal with you to record when you start to feel impatient. Write down what the situation is, and why you're getting frustrated.

Identifying your triggers helps because it forces you to examine your actions and uncover why you're doing what you're doing. This knowledge also helps you devise strategies to avoid becoming impatient.

Of course, it would be great if you could avoid the triggers that make you impatient. But for most of us, that's just not possible. So you have to learn to manage impatience instead.

Managing the Symptoms

When you feel impatient, it's important to get out of this frame of mind as quickly as possible. Try these strategies:

• Take deep, slow breaths, and count to 10. Doing this helps slow your heart rate, relaxes your body, and distances you emotionally from the situation. If you're feeling really impatient, you might need to do a longer count, or do this several times.
• Impatience can cause you to tense your muscles involuntarily. So, consciously focus on relaxing your body. Again, take slow, deep breaths. Relax your muscles, from your toes up to the top of your head.
• Learn to manage your emotions. Remember, you have a choice in how you react in every situation. You can choose to be patient, or choose not to be: it's all up to you.
• Force yourself to slow down. Make yourself speak and move more slowly. It will appear to others as if you're calm – and, by "acting" patient, you can often "feel" more patient.
• Practice active listening and empathic listening. Make sure you give other people your full attention, and patiently plan your response to what they say.
• Remind yourself that your impatience rarely gets others to move faster – in fact, it can interfere with other people's ability to perform complex or highly-skilled work. All you're doing is creating more stress, which is completely unproductive.
• Try to talk yourself out of your impatient frame of mind. Remind yourself how silly it is that you're reacting this way. People often don't mind if a meeting is delayed, just as long as you let them know that you're running late in advance.
• If your impatience causes you to react in anger toward others, use anger management techniques to calm down.
• Some people become impatient because they're perfectionists. However, in addition to causing impatience, perfectionism can actually slow productivity and increase stress. Learn how to stop being a perfectionist with our Coaching Clinic I'm a Perfectionist!

Remember that, although many people are naturally patient, the rest of us need to practice patience for it to become a habit. Becoming more patient won't happen overnight, but do persist – it's so important!

Key Points

Many of us struggle with impatience. But if we want healthy work relationships and a successful career, then we need to spend time making patience a habit.

Start by identifying your triggers. Often a specific person or situation can immediately cause you to become impatient. When you identify the specific causes, you're better able to discover why it's happening. You can then use strategies to overcome your impatience.

- See more at: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTCS_78.htm#sthash.6tNHHdhZ.dpuf

 

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A Tale of Great Courage

 

DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT: LIFE'S COSMIC EQUATION

"Because Your Life is Worth it!"

 

 

***THIS ARTICLE IS FROM: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1525980/Courage-under-fire-of-teenage-medic-who-saved-life-of-sergeant.html DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT DID NOT WRITE IT, WE ARE JUST SHARING THIS AMAZING STORY WITH YOU!***

Courage under fire of teenage medic who saved life of sergeant

By Nick Britten

12:01AM BST 10 Aug 2006

A teenage medic is in line to become the first female soldier to be decorated for bravery in Iraq after saving her commander's life during a fierce gun battle.

Pte Michelle "Chuck" Norris, who is just 5ft tall, braved heavy sniper fire for three minutes when she climbed on top of a Warrior armoured vehicle to pull her sergeant to safety after he was wounded in the head.

One bullet from an AK47 rifle ripped through her rucksack as she came under fire from five different positions.

She said last night that the incident had "brought home" the reality of war to her.

How to be Courageous

 

DANCE WITH THE ELEPHANT: LIFE'S COSMIC EQUATION

"Because Your Life is Worth it!

 

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***This article is by Adam Khan - the original website that we found it at can be reached here: http://www.youmeworks.com/how-courage.html***

COURAGE IS NOT the absence of a thumping heart. It is the absence of cowering. Courage is taking actions that need to be taken regardless of how scared you are. "Courage" is what we call it from the outside, but what it is on the inside is simply responsibility.

A soldier in battle jumps on top of a live grenade that has just landed in his foxhole, saving the lives of the three other men in the foxhole with him. We hear of his action and say it was a tremendous act of courage. But what does he say? Someone who lived to tell about it says he was only trying to protect his buddies. He saw the grenade first and felt responsible for the lives of his friends.

Whenever you see heroes interviewed, they almost always say the same thing: "I only did what anyone else would do in the situation." They saw what needed to be done and felt responsible — responsible for their buddies, or their mission, or human decency, or whatever.

Their courage was a result of their feeling of responsibility.