Impatience :: A Principle Hindrance Along The Path Towards Mastery & Success

Impatience is one of the principle obstacles that we face in life. Above all, impatience is a battle with ourselves. A constant striving against our lower nature and impulses which are constantly pulling us away from internal silence, peace, and deep internal connection. This is what our lower nature does, manifesting as restlessness in all aspects of our being and in probably every area of our lives.

Impatience effects our experience in the present moment, along with the realization of both short-term achievement and long-term success, all with relative equality. At the most fundamental level impatience effects both our ability to complete tasks, and the quality of work we produce at the end.

Where an impatient person quits in frustration, a person with patience continues to take consistent action, even if that is only in small steps, because they are not dragged down by the negative emotional repercussions of impatience. They stay with the problem until they understand it so comprehensively that an elegant solution emerges, staying with their creation so that in the end all rough edges are smooth. Impatience only hinders our progress along the path to success and mastery in any endeavor.

The First Lesson of Impatience :: Facing What Is Within Us

We lack patience because of a fundamental lack of engagement in our actions. When we find deep meaning in what we are doing, then nothing in the world can stop us from doing that thing that we feel we are living for. In this state impatience doesn’t exist. Impatience is a symptom of a deeper issue, which we can only see clearly by resisting the restlessness that arises from impatience.

I am speaking here of a unique experience of patience that we find through hours of training and work at something that we are passionate about. The times that we feel impatience are when we need to really pay attention. Why are we unable to focus our minds in this moment? If we look we will inevitably sense a disconnect within us. We are impatient because we are forcing this specific task, because we feel more inclined to be working on or doing something else in this moment. Or maybe the issue is more severe, we do not know what we want to do with our lives and are just going through the motions.

Human beings are lacking a connection to a deeper spiritual principle. This can be seen in the events of modern times. We are lacking deep engagement in the actions of our lives because we have not spent the time necessary to look within and allow the truth of what we are to unfold, unfolding as emotions, into thoughts, into actions, and into our lives. It requires a different level and type of work and patience to achieve this, and the evident lack of patience, superficiality, and discontent suggests that people have generally not realized this shift in their own lives. (Be Patient to Realize Your Full Potential)

We are patient when we are where we need to be, when we are content in what we are. Though impatience comes from a fundamental discontent with ourselves. We need some degree of internal quiet for our minds to untangle themselves, organizing into some coherent stream of words or melody that becomes a chapter or a song.

Cultivating Patience Through Our Work and Training

Along the path towards self-mastery, within the deepening of our mental-emotional-spiritual experience, impatience is a quality of our character that will naturally be refined.

We cannot reach mastery without patience, since we cannot learn great skill without patience. Patience enables us to sink deeply into a creative state in our work. Hours fly by when we are engaged in a project of our design, which we have crafted and chosen using meaning as a guide.

Perhaps the largest benefit of cultivating patience is that

Patience is the quality of mind and emotion which allows us to sustain progress, because we are able to keep our mind on a thing for longer. With patience we are not as easily distracted, enabling us to navigate to deeper purpose, engagement, concentration, meaning, and power in our work, resulting in the joy that accompanies a deep experience of self-expression.

In every moment we can address impatience and cultivate patience if we finely tune ourselves to our emotional state in each passing instant. In all of our daily tasks, in our daily work, practice, or training if we choose to strive towards internal silence and deeper engagement in what we are doing. (Slipping Into Stillness)

Impatience perennially draws us from the abundant joy of the present with the lure of some form of distraction. Pulling us away from both a genuine experience of ourselves, and our most creative states. From the place where our actions arise from the deepest parts of ourselves. Our internal orientated gaze fosters the unraveling of our emotions, desires, and deepest nature dictating the design of our lives.

Place your attention on approaching this internal space in each action. Choose to cultivate patience, rather than attempting to defeat impatience.

Impatience Hindering Spiritual Experience

In every moment and action of our lives we have an opportunity to orientate our minds differently. We can choose to allow our impatience to force us away from silence into some form of distraction, or we can choose to learn from it. Recognize that your impatience is not a barrier, but a symptom of a lack of engagement in your life.

The solution to impatience is to develop the patience to stay with those things that make us impatient, without falling into distraction. You are impatient because you have not yet found a place of spiritually aligned, creative flow in your life. Perhaps not yet the arts or path that will help you to experience this.

Buddhism refers to restlessness or impatience as one of the Five Hindrances to spiritual progress, self-mastery, and life. If we do not have the capacity to sit patiently and calmly, working on a task, waiting for inspiration or acting on it, doing our daily tasks, then progress will never be made. Most things require us to work for their realization, consistently and at length.

However if we can learn this skill early, if we can master the art of relaxing deeply into our daily work with consistent tireless effort until we complete our task, then we have mastered the most fundamental skill of making continuous progress in what we place our attention on. Thus also perhaps the most profound skill in seeing constant change and development in our lives.

Impatience hinders our progress along the path to the mastery of anything, and only creates challenges in our lives. If we can recognize the importance of this understanding, and gradually learn to act with greater patience and with more intention behind each action, we can find greater meaning and greater power in our lives.