How Patience Can Give You Power

 

Photo by DonnyPodrasky at Etsy

    What does a picture of a diving eagle have to do with patience? If you look at my Instagram, you'll find many wildlife photos that I've shot. I can tell you that, to the uninitiated, these photos require leaps and bounds more patience than one might imagine. If you think I sat there for hours at a location where I've heard this eagle sometimes visits, waited for him to land, and then waited another hour constantly keeping my viewfinder on him until he dove away, you're mistaken. 

   In fact, I came to this same location time and time again, practiced taking photos of anything that I thought might be interesting, and waited to see if this eagle would ever appear. I probably went to this location at least four times after several people reminded me about this eagle. I spent hours in this area every weekend for about a month until I finally saw the eagle. But, when I saw him, sadly he was too far away and at a terrible angle for any decent shot. Still, I stood there after my first sighting of him with my camera aimed up at the tree where he was perched. He was too obscured by the branches and leaves. Eventually, I had to leave to attend to all the errands and tasks that life puts upon us all. 

    It wasn't until a couple weeks later that I spotted this eagle in the same location, this time in a position where I could take good photos of him. Knowing that there's no telling how good of a shot I'll ever get, I waited for any shot worth taking and took picture after picture. I wasn't completely satisfied with what I had so I decided to stay out there in the hot sun for hours. I actually began to wonder if I would become a victim of heat exhaustion. Then, right as I was about to give up and go home, thinking the eagle might stand there for hours, not doing anything more interesting than what I had already captured, he took off. My constant focus on the eagle was finally rewarded. If I would have let my guard down for even a moment during those several hours, I would have missed this fraction of a second where I could have captured this beautiful shot of an eagle diving from the sky.

    Aside from all that, an eagle is a great symbol of success via unwavering patience. The eagle is powerful. The eagle is fast. But none of the privileges of being an eagle would matter if the eagle lacked patience. Just like the photographer in the wilderness, if the eagle is going to succeed, he's going to have to attend areas where he believes there would be something to gain, and he may have to return to those areas again and again. The eagle cannot attack anything he sees when he sees it. Instead, this great bird of prey will have a much higher success rate and waste a lot less energy if he waits for the right moment when he has the best shot, and then take that shot.

Relationships

Photo by Omar Lopez on Unsplash

    Patience isn't all about letting time pass by. It's not just about waiting. There is much more to it than that. In my podcast, Benevolent Vibes, I published an episode about the power of patience. My podcast in general is about improving your life starting from within yourself. Benevolent vibes is about raising your vibrations and becoming a 5th-dimensional being. In my episode, The Power of Patience, I'm taking a respite from the focus of the 5th dimension and, instead, am addressing how certain 3rd-dimensional obstacles can be overcome so that we may ascend to the 4th and then 5th dimensions.

    One example I give of how patience can help us avoid 3rd-dimensional obstacles is a practice that has very little to do with waiting. Instead, this technique is more active and more about making a sound decision. That example is:

    Have you ever received a text from a friend and interpreted what you read to be something very insulting, and instead of trying to find any way that the text could be a good thing, you automatically went on the defense and maybe even retaliated? These things happen far too often. Sometimes what was meant as a light-hearted joke or even as a compliment gets misinterpreted and when people fire back, that's when the damage is caused.

    Unfortunately, all the apologies in the world will still not make things as good as they were prior to the damaging event. What you said was still said and that person will have no choice but to remember the harm you've done for as long as that memory lasts.

Photo by Obie Fernandez on Unsplash

    So, what's the solution? If you're communicating with a friend who's always been good to you, who never seems like they would be the type to ever attack you, try to think of any way that message they conveyed to you could have to transmitted with good intentions. If after considering everything in every way possible, you still feel like you've been attacked, ask them what they meant by what they said. Sometimes, their explanation may also seem injurious and it might seem to be confirming your notion that you were being slighted. If that's the case rephrase what they sent to you and ask if that's what they meant by what they were saying. Most of the time, you'll be relieved to find that your friend didn't mean things anywhere near the harmful way that it was interpreted.

Funny Story

Photo by Timur Garifov on Unsplash

    A friend of mine, we'll call him Dave, had a friend, who we'll call Jess, who had a style that seemed very much like what a stereotypical stripper would wear; she wore skimpy, bare midriff tops, really pretentious and flashy shoes, very expensive and stylish (but not at all practical) purses, short shorts, very long, very glittery nails,.. etc. My friend Dave was very patient. He didn't want to make any comments about her style or assume the type of work she did. He instead got to know her very well. Eventually, he found out that Jess worked as a cleaner, she just liked to dress in that style.

    One day, Jess was complimenting Dave on how respectful he seemed to be compared to other guys who always seemed to assume that she wasn't worth their time and even thought that she worked as a stripper. Dave joked that he'd seen strippers before and they seem to like having long nails with expensive manicures. Jess laughed and this was their running joke between them for several months on end. It's still their running joke, now, years later. The two of them would always jest about people working as pole dancers if those people had long, glittery nails -- which was even funnier to Dave and Jess because they figured pole dancing was a very athletic activity in which long nails would be a problem.

The Conflict

    Sadly, one day Jess posted a whole series of pictures and videos on social media. In some of those shots, Jess and her friends were literally joking around and pretending to pole dance. Dave sent a private message to Jess about her and her friends being strippers. This caused Jess to do the unexpected, considering their history with their running inside joke. Instead of replying back with laughing emojis, Jess attacked Dave talking about how she thought he was different and how she's made up her mind that Dave was a bad person that she doesn't want to talk to anymore. Jess added a few more insults, insults that would make it clear that Jess wasn't the nice girl that Dave always gave her credit for being, despite some of the drama that she told him about in the past.

    Dave was confused and asked why a joke that the two of them always made together was suddenly offensive. Jess responded very angrily and hurtfully about what a monster Dave would be to be insulting her dead relative that way. With more confusion, Dave asked what she was talking about. Jess replied, "Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. It plainly says that it was her birthday in my posts!" 

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

    Nope! Dave had no idea what she was talking about. In fact, the post he commented on had nothing to do with her loved one who had passed. In fact, he had never seen that post, it was much deeper in her story than he had ever been when he made the comment. After a lot of explanation, arguing, and even 

weeks passing, Dave eventually got a reply back from Jess. She apologized and acknowledged that she saw that he never saw any of the posts that had anything to do with her late family member. Eventually, the two made up and are now still friends.

    However, the damage has still been done. It wasn't necessarily her mean retaliations that hurt. The real insult was that Dave, who had always been nice to her, who gave her compliments when she was self-doubting, who did his best to make time for her so the two of them could meet up, was assumed to be intentionally saying hurtful things to Jess. Dave was insulted because "how could she think that of him?" He never in his life had any bad intentions toward her. And now, she's treating him like she always suspected that he was a bad guy all along. 

    Beyond the realization that all the trust he thought he had from Jess was all false all along, he now realized that he can't trust her with his deepest thoughts anymore. That's probably what hurt the most for him. Now, he knew that if ever dared to trust her that much again, it could result in the same disaster, maybe worse.

The Lesson

    In regard to relationships and the concept of patience, you can bring yourself a lot of very low vibrations if you assume the worse of things. If you think you've been attacked, try to figure out how the message you received may actually be a positive thing. If you can't see it that way, rephrase what you think that person said and ask if that's what they meant. By practicing patience in this way, you'll tend to find that people never meant any harm in what they said and that the message you thought they were conveying wasn't anything like that, in the first place. 

    In regard to the Benevolent Vibes podcast's mission of helping you raise your vibrations, this concept can help you avoid low-vibration pitfalls that will either prevent you from ascending into the 4th dimension or even cause you to descend into lower dimensions.

Success in Business

    In New York City, during the 2010's, a very talented artist had just become homeless after dropping out of a school of design and then community college, too. Her name was Ashley. She sometimes spent time at homeless shelters and lived a very poor lifestyle as she struggled financially and tried to get her life figured out. According to one source, she even considered prostitution as a way to earn money because she was at such a low point that she thought she might have to do that if she couldn't get into a better financial situation. These hardships did not stop her from using social media to promote her craft. She would sing on YouTube, spread her art on Tumblr, and use other social media to try to spread awareness of her talents and ambitions. 

    Eventually, she met someone who thought she had a unique voice and a lot of talent. She recorded a song called Ghost, and it literally charted overnight. With that began a very lucrative career. And, if you haven't guessed it already, the Ashley we're talking about is Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, AKA Halsey.

Pin made by DonnyPodcast on Pintrest

    Stories like that of Halsey are not uncommon. Steve Harvey, at one point, slept in his car for three years while he dedicated himself to trying to get his next comedy gig. According to an article found on AmoMama, Harvey's main diet consisted of bologna sandwiches during that part of his life. Now, of course, Steve Harvey is doing quite well. Similar information can be found on the YouTube channel, BeforeTheyWereFamous. 

    The examples go on and on from Jay-Z, who went from rags to riches despite labels initially telling him that he was "terrible" and, Eminem who had to contend with poverty, racism, bullying, and an unstable living situation as a kid before he eventually made it to the big time.

    All of the above stories of coming from low places to eventually achieve greatness bring to light another aspect of how patience is practiced to obtain your dreams. Patience doesn't mean just sitting there and waiting patiently for things to happen. Patience in regard to making these dreams into accomplishments also means to stay focused, stay on it, and never surrender until the objective is met.

From Employee to Owner

Cynthia, Owner of an Allstate Agency

    

    You don't have to be a musician, comedian, or actor to practice patience in a way that could propel you to the top. More than 8 years ago, Cynthia was an insurance agent working for Allstate. Eventually, she realized that she was very good at what she did for a living and her clients loved having her as their agent. So, Cynthia set her aim on not just being a top agent but also becoming an owner of her own agency. 

    Things were not going to come easy though. To become an owner you have to purchase a book of business, which is basically the list of clients that are currently under policy with that agency. A "book," as they call it, could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or even multiple millions of dollars. As far as Cynthia knew, it would be a very long time until she could purchase her book. However, she knew one thing. She knew exactly what she wanted to be doing and she kept at it. She continued working as an agent and saving up money until one day a stroke of luck occurred.

    She learned from an old friend in the business that he was trying to sell his book of business for a relatively low price. He was getting out of the business and had and limited amount of time until he wanted the book to be off his hands. However, even at the discounted price he was asking, Cynthia was not yet in a position to be purchasing his book.

    It must have been a frustrating moment to be Cynthia at that time. She was offered a book of business at one of the lowest prices that she's ever seen for that area, yet it was still out of reach. She was pretty sure that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to obtain an agency and at a good price. Cynthia thought that some other aspiring owner was going to buy the book. To her surprise, the book of business stayed available for sale until the seller had little time left. He, the seller, decided to come down in price. With a lot of hard work and some financing, Cynthia was able to obtain the book of business and start an agency of her own well before she thought she would get the opportunity.

    Today, Cynthia is growing her business and her clients are very impressed with her work ethic, availability, knowledge of the business, and her truly benevolent intentions in regard to helping each and every one of her customers.

The Pizza Guy

Video by The Grubwire

    Even if you think you're working at a "dead end" job, the same principle applies. I, the author of this blog, have even delivered pizzas at one point in my life, and a lot of my fellow drivers thought that they were at the top of their potential in the company. Many of them did not believe there was any upward mobility for them. This is a pretty common attitude among fast food workers; they seem to think that, just because there is not a lot of opportunity for raises and benefits in their current entry-level position, they can't go any higher.

    Domino's in particular actually has a manager training program. Rob Cookston, was once a pizza delivery guy and felt inspired to enroll in the training program for management once he saw a Domino's franchise owner roll up in a yellow Ferrari. As of April 24th, 2013, he owned 18 Domino's franchises!

Patience

    Patience isn't merely just waiting. Patience also involves using your mind to make better decisions with the finite time you have. Whether it's taking a moment to consider the best possible meanings of something a friend said before reacting or trying to reach your goals, patience is best practiced actively.

Thank you for reading this post. If you love nature and all things regarding holistic wellness, check out my YouTube where you'll find videos of myself doing maintenance on my honeybee hives. I also make some content on Instagram. Check those things out at the links below.

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