If you’re in business then you’re in competition.
With direct competitors, but also with every other business or media or whatever fighting for your customer’s attention and money.
The NFL is in competition only with other sporting events. They’re in competition with all other entertainment. Netflix, Hulu, taking a walk and much, much more.
What’s a key to getting a leg up on the competition?
Patience.
Think about the decisions you’ve made that have turned out negatively? Odds are fairly good that those decisions were based on perceived short-term rewards.
That is likely the opposite of times when you’ve thought about patience and for the long-term. Those decisions usually result in good things. Not always. Never guaranteed. But odds are good that things work out well for you if you’re playing the long game.
Patience comes in all kinds of forms. You can have patience for other people. You can also have patience with yourself. Especially with yourself. It’s easy to get down on yourself if you make a mistake or if you don’t reach a certain goal based on some arbitrary deadline that you put on yourself.
When a new blogger asks me for advice, I usually tell them to write one post per day for a year without doing any promotion or any looking at analytics. No expectations other than writing one post per day for a year.
The reason I say that is because it offers them a reason to practice patience.
It’s nothing new or unique. It works for all kinds of things in life. I try it with golf. I try to hit shots every day. No expectations on the results or progress. Just focus on doing it every day for a year or season. Kind of put your head down and do it.
What you notice is that after a long time of doing that you do improve. Usually more than you thought. When you focus on the patience aspect you forget about all the short-term stuff that doesn’t matter. The stuff that can actually deter you from reaching your goals.
Patience is power. It gives you the freedom to actually do the things you want to do. And to do them well.