Creative Space with Jennifer Logue

The Importance of Patience

December 18, 2022 Jennifer Logue
Creative Space with Jennifer Logue
The Importance of Patience
Show Notes Transcript

On this episode of Creative Space, we discuss the importance of patience in creativity and in life. It’s something I’ve struggled with a lot and continue to struggle with. I hope that what I’ve learned so far can help you find the patience to keep going and enjoy the journey more than the destination. 

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SHOW NOTES:

0:00—Introduction

0:30—Why patience is hard

1:30—Patience and growth

2:30—Patience and trust

3:40—The problem with avoiding pain

4:30—Patience and creativity

6:45—Quotes on patience (and impatience)

7:33—Closing


Jennifer Logue:

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of creative space, a Podcast where we explore, learn and grow and creativity together. I'm your host Jennifer Logue. And today, we're going to talk about the importance of patience. I am not going to sugarcoat it, the last six months for me have been tough, tough. But over and over again, I keep hearing the same message, be patient, which can be so hard to do, especially in this fast paced social, media crazed world of ours. We see the highlight reels of our friends, family, people we admire. But most of the time, we don't see the day to day struggles, the challenges, the sacrifices that were required to get there. When we're going through challenging situations, professionally, personally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, or all of the above, it's easy to just throw in the towel, to give up on our dreams, to abandon goals, to look for another job to end relationship. And while sometimes this is the right thing to do, looking at my own experiences so far in this life, tremendous, tremendous growth has come from walking through the fire to the other side. And the key ingredient to getting to the other side, patience, because when you're going through challenges, you're going to feel like you're falling behind and not making progress, especially when you're constantly reminded about all the cool things other people are doing and achieving. But you can't let this distract you from your path and your purpose, you have to realize that the challenges are part of the process, and a vital part of your growth. With every step forward, even when it's hard, you are getting a little bit stronger, a little bit wiser, a little more skilled, a little more resilient, a little more compassionate. And, dare I say, a little more, okay, with patients in general. Being patient also helps us trust more, you have to faith that things are going to get better, that you're getting better, and let that fill you. Because when you have that kind of faith and trust, putting the monkey brain aside, you are making space for beautiful things to happen. I'm actually amazed right now, because one area of my life that has been incredibly Rocky is starting to come down. And some incredible seeds that were planted six months ago, are now blossoming beyond my wildest expectations. But had I thrown in the towel, had I quit when the fire got too hot. When everyone else told me to walk away, I would have missed out not just on the opportunity. But the more important thing, the growth, when he walked through fire, you're uncomfortable at first, because all of your weak spots come rushing to the surface. But inevitably, your skin gets thicker, and you are better and more prepared for what's next. On the other hand, when you walk away from the fire, you avoid pain, but you also avoid growth. Interestingly, I've noticed when I've walked away from the fire in my own life, I keep encountering a similar challenge over and over again. As I'm getting older, and hopefully wiser, I'm beginning to recognize that every challenge is actually here to teach me something. And I'm gradually getting better at embracing these challenges. Gradually, this willingness to walk through the fire and work through problems, putting in the work even when you're exhausted. Even when you have no motivation. The people that do this, the ones that persevere powered by patients. They're the ones that win. They're the ones who grabbed the brass ring. So what does this have to do with creativity? Everything. First of all, developing your gift takes time, whatever it is. Sure, you may have some natural ability, but you become great. You need to take the foot off of the gas and be patient with the process. It's not always going to be fun. It's not always going to be glamorous, it's going to take sacrifice because you've only got so many hours in the day. But when you have the virtue of patience, and its sister contentment, you have everything you need to make the most of whatever your gift is. Secondly, we go off course without patience, I get it, I really, really, really get it. We all have bills to pay, and need money to survive. So as we're developing our gifts, there's this tendency, not for all of us, but for some of us to try and make things happen in our own strength. Rather than allowing our gift to make a path for us, we get distracted by short term rewards. Maybe it's a bigger paycheck, maybe it's putting too much focus on building a social media presence. And we deprioritize the nurturing and love of our gift for what it is, we lose the joy of the process of presence of appreciation of where we are right now, right here. We try to take shortcuts. And we end up holding ourselves back, repeating the same mistakes, because we're not giving ourselves the opportunity to grow when things get hard. Thirdly, and this is the worst of all, but without patience, we quit. Creating anything takes patience, and refining something to be the best it can be takes even more patience. We cannot control the results of what we do. We can only control our actions and our attitude. But when we just throw in the towel, the journey ends. There's a quote from Confucius. It doesn't matter how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop. Just keep going. Don't stop. In reading this episode, I stumbled upon a few other quotes about the virtue of patience, that I want to leave you with. A quote from Gandhi. To lose patience is to lose the battle. From the philosopher John Jacques Rousseau. Patience is better, but it's fruit is sweet. From the Bible, Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. And patience leads to abundant understanding. But impatience leads to stupid mistakes. Impatience leads to stupid mistakes. Yep, that one is from Proverbs, quite the gem, another one to put on my wall. On that note, whatever you're patiently working towards in life, I commend you. And if you're anxious for something to happen, to see some sort of results to achieve the next milestone, relax. You've already come so far. Enjoy the ride. Enjoy the challenges and the beauty of growth at every step of the process. My name is Jennifer Logue and thank you for listening to this episode of creative space. Until next time,