My mom always says, “Patience is a virtue.”

I always say it’s a virtue I don’t have and maybe never will.

Despite my all too frequent impatience, I am growing in the waiting game. Under certain circumstances and environments, I can have the patience of a saint, in others not so much.

While I may not be able to wait patiently all the time, I have learned that waiting out the storm, whether it’s the new job you took on, or the relationship you’ve been working on, or just the new stage of life you are in, can be difficult but nonetheless important.

I never knew the importance of patience because I’ve always thought of waiting as an agonizing experience.  Is it such a bad thing to want to get to the better place, the better feelings or the better experience? Not at all.  But, you may be doing yourself an injustice if you don’t embrace the process, however stormy or uncertain it can be.

The truth is, and most don’t understand this: you won’t get what you want immediately and you shouldn’t get it immediately either. It’s a problem with my generation and one I certainly am a representation of. You can’t snap your fingers and everything falls into place.  You have to work for it.  You have to wait for it. And really if you didn’t have to, what fun would that be?

I now understand that waiting, however tumultuous it can be on you, can be an experience that builds appreciation and fulfillment.

I’m a person who lives for a challenge, so when I work for and toward something, when I am patient and allow nature to take its course, when the payoff finally comes to fruition, it is even sweeter than if it was to be just handed to me right off the bat.

I am not a patient person by nature, but I have come to see the importance of sitting back and letting nature take it course – to let a decision play itself out.

Where I have most noticeably seen this play out is in my new job.  I’m not just a newbie, but rather the majority of the team I work with is new and settling in has been more difficult than most new jobs. Almost every day we talk about “waiting out the storm” as we all get settled, logistics get determined and structure gets placed.

When I decided to take the job, it was in complete contrast to where I was planning to take my life. So going into a job loaded with ambiguity left me questioning whether I made the right choice. But I stuck with it and knew the structure would come, the positions would be filled and the work would get done.

Two months later, I am seeing the benefits of being patient.  I see how well our new staff is really coming together.  I see the ideas and dreams getting talked about and I see the wheels turning to make things bigger and better.  I see myself fulfilling my ambition of stepping up to the plate while accepting the challenge of more responsibility than just my job description.

I am not patient by nature, but taking a deep breath and treating each new day as a step in the right direction. Progress is always a part of the process, even if I can’t always see it.

So as you journey through the many chapters of your life remember:

Be patient with yourself. You have a lot to learn and a lot to give, but it doesn’t always come together immediately.

Be patient with the process. Progress is developing even if you can’t see it, hear it or feel it.  Trust that what is unfolding is leading you to where you are meant to be and to be doing what you are meant to do.

Be patient with all that remains unsolved.  Nothing in life is clear cut and distinct.  In fact, there is more ambiguity in life than anything else. Learn to embrace the uncertain, because you are learning to live the answers to the questions you have, without even realizing it.