There is many a life lesson we can learn from gardening. One in particular has to do with learning to wait and be patient. Putting your hands in the dirt and planting a seed that in and of itself is fully endowed, so that it will in the right environment with some nurturing and care evolve and come to fruition to fulfill a purpose that only the seed in all its uniqueness can fulfill like no other seed of another type or nature could do so in its place IS the gateway to unraveling the secret of leadership.
The first secret nature points us to is patience.
As Doug Moran, author of “If you will lead” says, “By demonstrating patience, leaders reinforce the importance of focusing on the long-term outcomes. Patience doesn’t mean ignoring the interim milestones or short-term deliverable. It does mean keeping them in context. (…) The bigger the issue and the longer the planning horizon, the greater the patience required to remain committed.” As in many other aspects of life the devil is in the detail.
Patience is as defined by Websters “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble or suffering without getting angry or upset.” This definition has several important aspects.
- NUMBER ONE: being a capacity – patience is a skill, so it can be learned. You have to train it and exercise it on a daily basis.
- NUMBER TWO: patience is acceptance. Acceptance is often confused with “liked” or “approved,” but acceptance is actually a form of surrendering. Many things occur in life that are not to our liking or desirable. Our option is to resist, to fight and to try to change it or just cave and give up –– and not to surrender and accept it as reality. Surrendering is not giving up but releasing the need to gain control at all costs and force the outcome. Gardening shows up that a seed will grow at its own pace and in its own fashion. That is the nature of a seed if planted and given the space to do so. You will simply have to wait and have faith that regardless of whether the seed sprouts or not whatever the outcome is the best possible outcome that could have been achieved.
- NUMBER THREE: patience is mastering your mind and emotions. You have no control over the events themselves but you have innate control over your thoughts, emotions and reactions to them. Learning to separate the feelings of anger or sadness from the behaviors of anger or sadness is crucial in this process. Feelings come and go like the tides but you do not have to act on every single one. You can choose consciously what to act on or respond to and no one else can. This requires putting some air between your feelings and the people, events or circumstances themselves.
How can we develop the skill of patience?
The answer is SLOW DOWN, BE AWARE, MAKE A CHOICE, TAKE ACTION, SURRENDER. The power of patience lies in your innate ability to simply pause and wait because what you plant doesn’t sprout right away. Have faith. Trust in the process.
