There’s perhaps no greater skill in business than patience. Some people have it while some people don’t. However, it can easily decide your success. Why is this? For the simple fact that everything that’s worthwhile takes years to cultivate. Name one person that’s an overnight success. There’s no such thing. It doesn’t matter if it was Steve Jobs or Warren Buffett, every successful entrepreneur hustled behind the scenes for years until they blew up.
In fact, the average business takes three years to become profitable. Are you willing to wait that long? Don’t worry if you’re a little on the impatient side, though. Today, I’ll be teaching how you to become more patient to solidify the success of your future if you keep reading.
Write down your goals and review them regularly
Doing business without any goals is like shooting in the dark. You won’t have any direction or aim. That’s why it’s crucial to write down goals you wish to achieve, such as:
- Reaching a certain amount of revenue
- Having a number of employees
- Expanding to certain locations
How does this help with patience? Well, having goals mapped out gives you a birds eye view of your business path. Giving them reasonable timelines to be achieved will help you see how long the whole picture will take to come together, making you less anxious about the short term.
Set milestones for every week, month, quarter, and year
Not only do you need overarching goals for each, but you also need milestones. These are small wins along the way to reaching the top of the mountain which keep you motivated and patient.
People often set no milestones or key performance indicators and what happens? They become impatient because they see no improvement. If you start setting goals and KPIs to track for every week, month, quarter, or desired timeline, the progression you experience will feel extremely rewarding.
“A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.” – Bruce Lee
Stay in the present moment
Getting stuck in your head and worrying about the future can be the bane of your existence. You want the accolades and success to happen now, but you’re not there yet. We call that cognitive dissonance: knowing where you want to be, where you are, and being stuck in limbo.
You can snap out of this by simply practicing meditation. And it’s not just a bunch of spiritual mumbo-jumbo, either. Scientific studies have shown that people who meditate have more emotional balance, focus, and grey matter in the brain.
You want to do this for the rest of your life, don’t you? Do you love entrepreneurship? Do you want to earn a living working for yourself forever? Then you need to start acting like it. If you want to do this for the next 20+ years, what’s the rush? You have your entire life to become successful in business, not one or two years. Always keep this in mind when working because it’s easy to get caught up in wanting to see instant results.
If you’re feeling some kind of impatience or angst, it simply means that you’re not enjoying the journey but rather focusing on the results. This brings me to my next point.
Enjoy the journey and progressing
One of the most satisfying things as an entrepreneur is looking back and seeing all of the progress you’ve made. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind that you forget you’ve come a very long way.
Take the time every day to reflect on how much your business, income, and you as a whole have improved over the years. This positive habit will make you feel great and motivated to keep working to see more results.
Don’t worry about other people
Self esteem is the relationship you have with yourself. It’s all too easy to watch what other people are doing and feel like you’re not doing good enough. Snap out of it. You only have to compete against yourself.
Spending time worrying about what others have and do is simply time you’re wasting not taking action. Learning to focus purely on your own progress and activities is a surefire way to develop patience because of this.
“Focus on you, until the focus is on you.”
Focus on what you need, not what you want
Tony Robbins once said that you should visualize your dream life and ask yourself “How much would I need to afford this?”. That number should be your main goal in terms of income.
Furthermore, what do you really need to be happy? Do you want financial freedom? Good health and relationships while working for yourself? Be honest. You might not want the private jet and Lamborghini deep down. Aiming to obtain what you need puts you in the position to be happy and comfortable before shooting for the stars, as well.
Final thoughts on becoming more patient
Patience is a very underrated skill when it comes to being a successful entrepreneur. Having it is like a superpower. You don’t get caught up in the daily grind, but rather enjoy it while remaining confident you know you’ll be successful later.
Writing down goals and milestones is a great way to begin working on your patience. Review them regularly and enjoy the progress you make.
Understanding that entrepreneurship is a life long journey can also put things into perspective. Build with the end in mind but practice staying as present as possible throughout the day. It’s also wise to tune out social media and worrying about what others are doing. You only need to compete against yourself and work on your goal lifestyle. Doing all of these things will transform your patience along with happiness and success as a result.
