"Patience is a virtue." "Hold your horses." "Haste makes waste." "Slow and steady wins the race." Heck, didn't the tortoise beat out the hare? I could go on and on with various clichés, proverbs and sayings about why being patient is a desireable character trait.
Since the field of real estate tends to be pretty high stakes and opportunities for frustration and impatience regularly present themselves in our day-to-day work, I guess I'm glad that I tend to be a rather patient person. I'm still working on improving, but generally, I think I'm at least a B+ in that department.
But just in case I'm off on that assessment, I'm doubling down on my commitment to improve in this area, because CLEARLY, the consequences of impatience can be pretty costly.
This story illustrates the concept better than anything I've seen in a long while. Now, maybe I'm a sick puppy (I checked ... noone got hurt, so perhaps you'll forgive me), but I laughed until I couldn't any longer when I saw the graphic photo documenting the conflagration set off by the impatience of one Florida woman.
The headline? "Impatient Driver Cuts In Line, Blows Up Gas Station."
SERIOUSLY???!!!! Just typing the title had me ROFLTICB (Rolling on the floor laughing till I couldn't breathe) ... all over again!
In my head, all I could see was her returning home to her spouse on foot, hair singed and still emitting smoke, looking like an extra from 'Apolcaypse Now' and trying to explain what happened to her, to the car, why she needed to cut in line in the first place, and oh yeah .. the civil suit heading their way. I SO want to ask the driver one question: 'How'd that work out for ya?'
Okay, I'm back from laughing and confident I'm a step closer to having six-pack abs.
My natural reaction to open displays of impatience is usually laughter. I can't help it ... it's amusing to me. However, I've learned to tone it down to a quiet chuckle most times, because impatient people tend to feel mocked when you're ROFL at their ILMM (I've Lost My Mind) moment.
But stifling the laughter in a show of polite deference doesn't change the facts, and I guess it really isn't a laughing matter at all. A person who is acting out on their impatience is quite literally out of control. Perhaps that's the whole point: 'I'm not in control of the situation and that makes me mad'?
A proverb is a guide by which to live life. Generally speaking, a proverb has its roots in age-old wisdom derived from observing the immutable principles of life over time. In plain English ... the moral of the story is: impatience costs you more in the end than taking the time to just be patient.
So from now on, whenever I feel the temptation to behave impatiently, I pledge to do my level best to remember the photo in this story as an extreme illustration of impatience gone awry. And yes, I will probably still let out a chuckle or two when I do!
My song for that? You know it ... The Ohio Players 'FIRE'!
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