Urgent With the Work, Patient With the Results

There are two things at odds with each other that can derail a lot of people. One is the idea that you need to be urgent and work hard to accomplish big goals. The other is that you also need to be patient when results take a long time to show up.

Most things are like this. Getting in shape, building a business, learning an instrument, art. You can work really hard every day on these things and not see any results for a while. Even when they do show up, it’s not all at once.

You see a little at a time. It can be discouraging if we don’t remain patient. This is one of the things I like about Stoic philosophy; a lot of the focus is on what you can control.

The only thing we can truly control when trying to achieve something is what we do. The timing of the results is often out of our hands. To fight off discouragement when results are slow, stay focused on what you have control over.

If you do the work every day, the results will happen.

— Bus