Author : Gilbert Griffiths
I was between 7 and 8 years old when I first learned that a lack of patience could be a very destructive thing. I was in the living room and I had been playing with a toy steam engine that my parents had bought me for my 7th birthday several months before. When I finished, instead of putting it away, I pushed it to one side and began using a pair of needle nosed pliers to try and fix another toy. The pliers were quite old and the teeth on the tips of the jaws were worn down. As a result, the pliers didn't grip too well and they kept slipping off what I was trying to hold. After several attempts I lost my patience and stood up and threw the pliers to the floor. They bounced off the floor and the jaws opened. When the pliers came back down one of the open jaws pierced the boiler of my steam engine. My beautiful birthday present was ruined.Throughout my life I've had to battle this lack of patience. When I slip and lose it, something bad always happens.Once, when I was attempting to teach my daughter how to use a word processing package on our computer, I got frustrated by her failure to grasp a feature I was trying to explain how to use. I made an exasperated remark and she got up and left the room. No amount of apologies would coax her back. To this day, nearly 20 years later, although we are good friends and love each other she will not allow me to teach her how to do anything.Another time, a friend from work asked for help with his computer. I went over and fixed his problem. After that he called on a regular basis. Each time I fixed the computer I would explain what he had done wrong. Frequently it would be the same thing he had done the last time he messed it up. I guess my lack of patience showed in my tone of voice or choice of words. He didn't say anything to me, but one day when he was talking to my wife he remarked, Gilbert doesn't have much patience does he? When she agreed, he said, "I've found someone else to teach me what I'm doing wrong. He's much more patient. My friend stopped calling and about 6 months later he moved away and I lost track of him.Impatience cost me a dear friend, a daughter who won't let me teach her anything and a wonderful toy. It has caused others to lose even more.One day, while I was sitting in a parking spot on the main street of a small city we were visiting, I saw impatience nearly cost a man his life. He was standing at an uncontrolled intersection waiting to cross the street.. Traffic was heavy and several times he stepped off the curb only to have to step back to avoid an approaching vehicle. Finally impatience got the best of him and he just stepped off the curb right in front of a car. The car struck him on his left side and catapulted him onto the hood of the car. The driver jammed on his brakes, stopping his car quickly. This caused the pedestrian to fly off the hood and land head first on the pavement, fracturing his skull. He didn't die from his impatience, but he sure spent a lot of time in the hospital recovering.I suppose our 21st century philosophy of instant gratification, instant rice, instant pudding, fast foods, one hour dry cleaning and other fast paced events in our lives has caused us to think that everything must happen very quickly.Well some things, unfortunately, do not. On our road to success, we must grow in our beliefs, our knowledge, our capabilities and our understanding before we can go on to the next level. These things take time. If our impatience gets hold of us, it stops us from getting to that next level. You can only reach your next success level when you are ready for it. All you have to do is look at the number of young sports stars, music idols, actors and actresses who have rocketed to instant fame and fortune only to come crashing back to earth very quickly with drug or alcohol addictions, immature decisions, rash statements and other actions that showed that they were not yet ready for that level of success.Don't let your impatience hold you from the growth you need to reach your next level of success. Control your life, don't let your impatience hold you hostage!Gilbert Griffiths helped thousands of people during a professional career that spanned more than 35 years. He recently came out of retirement with a passionate goal to help one million people improve
their lives. Would you like to be one of those people? If you would, go to http://www.rockettosuccess.com
Keyword : impatience, destructive, life, friend, daughter, success, beliefs, knowledge, capabilities
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