Law #70 - Position Yourself To Be Patient
by Stanley Bronstein on July 3, 2008
Law #70
Position Yourself To Be Patient
Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come. (Robert H. Schuller)
Some Definitions
Never - Not ever; at no time.
Cut - To detach with or as if with a sharp-edged instrument; separate from the main body; lop off. To lower, reduce, diminish, or curtail.
Tree - A plant having a permanently woody main stem or trunk, ordinarily growing to a considerable height, and usually developing branches at some distance from the ground. Anything that is developed and grown.
Down - From higher to lower; in descending direction or order; toward, into, or in a lower position. In or to a calmer, less active, or less prominent state.
Wintertime - The coldest season of the year; the coldest season. The time when very little growth occurs as energies are conserved for warmer times of the year and warmer seasons.
Negative - Characterized by the absence of distinguishing or marked qualities or features; lacking positive attributes. Lacking in constructiveness, helpfulness, optimism, cooperativeness, or the like. Being without rewards, results, or effectiveness.
Decision - The act of or need for making up one’s mind. The act or process of deciding; determination, as of a question or doubt, by making a judgment.
Low Time - A particular period considered as distinct from other periods that is ranked near the bottom on some scale of measurement.
Important - Of much or great significance or consequence. Mattering much. Entitled to more than ordinary consideration or notice.
Worst Moods - A bad or ill state of mind or emotion. A faulty or poor Inclination or disposition.
Wait - To postpone or delay something or to be postponed or delayed. To remain inactive or in a state of repose, as until something expected happens.
Patient / Patience - Having or showing the capacity for endurance. Bearing provocation, annoyance, misfortune, delay, hardship, pain, etc., with fortitude and calm and without complaint, anger, or the like.
Storm - A disturbance of the normal condition. A violent outburst or outbreak of expression.
Pass - To let go without notice, action, remark, etc.; leave unconsidered; disregard; overlook. To endure or undergo.
Source: Dictionary.com
What Is This Quote Suggesting?
It is suggesting that we should never take NEGATIVE actions or make NEGATIVE decisions at the worst times. We should only take such actions and make such decisions under the best of circumstances.
Taking a negative action or making a negative decision at the worst time will only serve to compound negatives. And as you’ve probably heard many times before, in mathematics, two negatives will cancel each other out and make a positive, but it doesn’t work that way in life.
Two wrongs don’t make a right and two negatives won’t make a positive.
Instead, the quote is suggesting that when you feel negative (especially when you feel the most negative), you should wait, be patient. Let things sort themselves out. The crazy times will pass and everything will calm down again.
The positive time will come back (Spring), and at that time, be ready to act. After all, Spring is the best time to plant seeds, if you want them to grow and thrive.
Another Quote On Patience To Think About
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions. (Rainer Maria Rilke)
To me, this quote is suggesting that if we have unsolved questions in our heart, we should NOT fear asking those questions; instead we should embrace the process. Don’t be so caught up in trying to find out the answers to those questions. Instead, sit back and let the process unfold. Live every piece of the process.
Live the formation of the questions.
Live the process of thinking about the questions.
Live the process of trying to find answers to the questions.
Live the answers one you do find them.
Live every single piece of the process and let them unfold, in their own time, in their own place, in their own way.
That’s what patience is all about.
So What Is The Point Of Everything I’m Saying
The main point behind what I’m suggesting is the need for patience. We should NOT spend all of our energy worrying about this or that. Those are things that may or may not ever happen.
One saying I’m reminded of is:
One who worries BEFORE it is necessary, worries MORE than is necessary.
That’s what patience is about. By being patient and allowing things to unfold, that is how we learn from the process. It’s how we learn to make things better. It’s how we learn to grow.
We will grow the moment we stop focusing on all the what ifs (especially the negative ones) and we start focusing on the NOW. Focus on the NOW and on what is (not what if) and positive things will begin to happen in your life.
Until next time, take care, my dear friends.Mr. Achievement
Stanley F. Bronstein
Attorney & CPA
July 6th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Stanley - one of my favorite posters was given to me by my dad who was a Pastor. He was trying to teach his feisty little redhead a lesson. It said, “Dear God, grant me patience, AND I WANT IT RIGHT NOW!” His lesson for me? “Patience and Impatience are important sides to the same coin. Have patience when things are hairy, but be impatient about the things that need to change. And use that impatience to fuel right work, right energy, and right passion on the right things!”
Keep up the great posts!
It’s fun watching you build your list!
Beth
July 6th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Beth:
Perhaps a better way to put it is that everything has a time and everything has a place.
Thanks for your comments.
Take care.
Stanley Bronstein
MrAcheivement