Another excerpt from my latest book, Simple Realities (The pathway to happiness and success), which is now available at Amazon.com and on Kindle.
I’m not generally regarded as a particularly patient person, but patience may once have saved my life. I was driving from Toronto to Prince Edward Island for my annual vacation. This was before the Confederation Bridge linking PEI to the mainland was built, so any delay on the trip could mean missing a ferry crossing, thereby adding hours to the journey. I pulled into a gas station in a little town about 100 kilometers northeast of Quebec City. The attendant (this was also before self-service became the norm) said he had to move a couple of cars before he could serve me. Normally, because I still had a quarter of a tank, I would have left and pulled into the next station. But, this day, for some reason, I waited patiently. The delay was about five minutes. A few miles down the road I came upon a multi-vehicle accident in which six people were killed and six others seriously injured. I later learned that the accident happened about five minutes before I arrived on the scene.
A few moments of patience may avert disaster; a moment of impatience can ruin a life.
Patience is really nothing more than hiding your impatience.
A shortcut may lead to somewhere you weren’t going.
We get the chicken by waiting for the egg to hatch, not by breaking it.
Patience is not a marathon; it’s a series of sprints.
Patience is a blend of intelligence and self-control.
Few things are harder than waiting; but it’s often worthwhile.
Patience is doing something else in the meantime.
Patience can be a bitter seed, but it produces sweet fruit.
It’s not good to pull up a flower by its roots to see how it’s doing.
Impatience can be a greater liability than inexperience.
A cake can’t be iced until it is baked.
The person who can’t wait for retirement is often the same person who can’t figure out what to do on a day off.
Patience in a moment of anger may avoid days of sorrow.
Confident people can afford to be patient.
If you’re a superstar, someone will find you.
Wait and see is usually pretty good advice; especially if that’s all you can do anyway.
Sometimes you just have to let nature take its course.