I don’t know about you, but one of my greatest struggles is with patience.  Let me explain. 

I am, at my most basic self, a teacher.  I have worked everywhere from small, rural, elementary schools to Fortune 500 companies.  In my role as a teacher, I have performed just about every task from wiping runny noses for second graders to writing proprietary training documentation for some very impressive companies.  I have been told that I have an extreme amount of patience when it comes to my teaching, and I like to think of myself as an intelligent and enlightened individual.  So why, then, do I embark on a new venture and expect everything to happen, now?

I started my Dental Practice Management Consulting firm about a year ago and have even published a training system, Zero Accounts Receivable.  I’ve been told it takes a good seven years to get known well enough to be successful in this business, but I want to be successful now.

I’ve developed two websites completely on my own and know that I have much more to learn – like coding – but I want to learn what takes even the brightest programmers about six months to learn in one afternoon – like this afternoon to be exact.

This past week I caught myself praying for God to slow the passage of time so that I might accomplish all the things on my list for the day.  Suddenly, I realized that my prayer needs to be, “Lord, grant me patience, with myself.”

Now, when I know I need something and I pray for it, I trust that God will provide it if it is in His Divine Will to do so.  But I also believe that it is our responsibility to look for the ways and means by which to fulfill His Will.  So to the internet I go in search of methodology to acquire patience.  What did I find?  The Law of Accumulation. 

This law says that everything great and worthwhile in human life is an accumulation of hundreds and sometimes thousands of tiny efforts and sacrifices that nobody ever sees or appreciates. It says that everything accumulates over time. That you have to put in many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile. It’s like a snowball. A snowball starts very small, but it grows as it adds millions and millions of tiny snowflakes and continues to grow as it gathers momentum.

This is a concept I can relate to.  It also gives me the freedom to forget about acquiring patience with myself, because every day, at least six days per week, I work 10 hours per day toward my goals.  I thought this made me a workaholic, but in this latest research, the law of accumulation says that everything you do either gets you closer to your goals, or draws you further away from them; nothing is neutral.  So everything counts.  So while I’m fretting over why I’m not accomplishing things as quickly as I’d like, I just need to remember that I haven’t completed enough of those tiny little tasks yet.  I’ve researched what I’m doing with many different people and know that I’m doing the right things.  It just takes time.  So every day, when I write, learn more about developing my website, build stronger business relationships, spend time planning, reflecting, researching, and motivating myself – it’s all adding up, and it’s going to pay off.  To have the payoff today, I would have had to start my business several years ago.  But I didn’t, so I must wait and continue to do the things I need to do to reach those goals.

Now, your call to action.  That’s right – I’m issuing a challenge today.  What have you been putting off?  What could you start today that would get you closer to your goals if you just committed a few minutes per day to it?  A college degree?  A complicated piano piece?  A cleaner home?  A better relationship?  Whatever it is for you, start working on it today and remember, everything counts.

Thanks for reading today.  I’d love to hear from you.  Share your story by clicking the “No comments” link below.

Posted under Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation