The Secret of Keeping Patience

Posted byprofessorbajajPosted inInvestment Advisors, Life Skills, Long Term Investing, NRI, Online, Professionals, Retirement Planning, Students, UncategorizedTags:, , , ,

Ravi: Hey Niraj, I was reading about an interesting research today. It is called the marshmallow Test.

 

Niraj: Sounds Interesting. Please tell me more about it.

 

Ravi: This Test was carried out to check the patience level of children. Some children were given 1 Marshmallow each and were told not to eat it for 15 minutes. Those who would wait for 15 minutes were promised a second marshmallow. Only few kids (less than 20%) could keep patience for 15 minutes. Others ate the Marshmallow before 15 minutes were over. It was also inferred that the kids who did not eat in 15 minutes, are expected to do very well in life as they exhibited patience which is a very important quality. Other kids showed impatience which will show in their future life too.

 

Niraj: Wow!! That sounds interesting. But if I were to conduct that test, I might have taught all the kids to practice patience and get a second marshmallow.

 

Ravi: What are you saying?? How can someone do that? Patience is a trait we are born with. Right?

 

Niraj: Not really. Patience is more of an art or a skill which can be learnt, practiced and developed. By birth, most of us are impatient, which also means, we are curious. We are curious about details, results etc. When this curiosity grows beyond acceptable limits, it becomes impatience and interference.

Also, we are born with a desire of instant gratification. When a child cries for milk, it wants that the demand should be fulfilled immediately. When it grows up, it extends this logic to toys, entertainment and other things that it demands. If you ask them to wait, they would refuse as a natural reaction. Most of them would prefer (rather insist) for their demands to be fulfilled immediately.

 

Ravi: Wow!! You sound logical. But then how would you teach Patience if we are naturally programmed to be impatient?

The Secret of Keeping Patience

 

Niraj: Well, there is a secret for that. We are impatient because it’s difficult for our mind to stay idle. It constantly seeks some activity or entertainment. Whenever we want to keep patience, most of us keep the mind idle. Our mind finds this waiting period boring and thus it keeps forcing us to check again and again and makes us impatient.

 

For example, in the marshmallow test, the children were given marshmallow and were asked to do nothing but watch the marshmallow and not eat it for 15 minutes. Now, their mind is idle for 15 minutes. For these 15 minutes, it keeps forcing them to do something. Take some action. If no other action is available, they will succumb to impatience and will eat the marshmallow.

 

If they are given an activity, wherein their mind is busy, they wont even realise when 15 minutes got over. This way, all the kids could have kept patience for 15 minutes and got another marshmallow.

 

In our lives too, most of us struggle for keeping patience. This is because, we don’t know how to keep patience. We think that, Patience means “Doing Nothing”. However, fact is, “Doing Nothing” is the most difficult thing for the mind (For Mind to do nothing, we have to practice meditation, which is again a learned art).

But even without meditation, we can keep patience. For example, if you appear for an exam, and are waiting for result, the right thing to do is, find out something interesting to do during that waiting time.

If you make an investment, which is expected to create 10-fold wealth in next 15-20 years, there is no point in watching it every day. People wonder how do we keep patience for 15-20 years. Actually, you don’t have to consciously keep patience. Just involve your mind in doing something else. Best would be, involve your mind in your own work, your family, your hobby, your health etc. Let Wealth be created in the background.

If you want to lose weight and build health, if you exercise one day and start measuring your weight, you might not see any result. This might make you lose heart and you might give up. Rather, continue doing your part and check the result only after 3-6 months. Possibly, you might not even check it on weighing scale. Your mirror will give you a good idea of the result.

In most waiting areas (Doctor’s clinic, Salons etc), magazines etc are kept for the same reason. If the visitors are not kept engaged, they will get bored and will repeatedly ask, “how much time more?”. When they are kept engaged, a 15-20 mins wait becomes easy for them.

 

Ravi: Superb!! That’s like an in-depth research. But tell me, is it important to have patience in life? I mean isn’t it true that there are no results without action?

 

Niraj: That’s a valid question.

First, Patience is not about doing nothing. Patience is about continue doing your part, and being patient about the results.

What we think as action, is actually checking results. So for example, if you are waiting for the train, it wont arrive faster because you are impatient. Yes, once it comes, your part is to board it. That time you can’t skip action. But once you board it, you have to again keep patience till the time you reach your destination. Just because you are bored of the journey, the train won’t reach faster.

 

Also, by learning to keep patience, you can manage your stress better. Just because you want things to happen faster, it wont happen. But your impatience will unnecessarily give you stress and might affect your blood pressure. By keeping patience, you can keep your cool and thus have a positive health.

 

Ravi: Thank you so much Niraj. Now I know the secret of how to keep patience. I also realise what is the importance of keeping patience in my life. I will keep my mind busy in some productive action than getting impatient and affecting my health.

 

We look forward to your feedback and comments on the above article.

The Author Prof. Saurabh Bajaj (BE, MBA, FRM, CFGP, CIA, AFGP) is CEO with Nidhi Investments, Mumbai. His articles have a readership from 78 Countries across the Globe. He may be contacted on CEO@nidhiinvestments.com if you have any questions.

(The views mentioned in the article are personal opinion of the author. The characters used in the article are imaginary).

 

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Published by professorbajaj

Prof. Saurabh Bajaj is an Author, Mentor, Motivational Speaker and Wealth Planner. He has done his MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) Mumbai, one of the top 10 management institutes in India. He holds the prestigious FRM (Financial Risk Manager) degree awarded by Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP), USA. Till date, there are less than 15,000 professionals in the world, who have been honored with this degree. He has also been awarded CFGP (Chartered Financial Goal Planner) Certification by AAFM (American Academy of Financial Management). After his MBA, he joined J P Morgan, the second largest Investment Bank in the world. He has worked with J P Morgan as Risk Analyst for more than two years. Prof. Bajaj also holds an Advisory certification awarded by AMFI (Association of Mutual Funds of India). During his stint at Bombay Stock Exchange, he has handled Investment Management and Treasury operations of the BSE Corpus. He has set up an entrepreneurship venture in the field of Wealth Planning and Investment Consulting under the name “Nidhi Investments” and holds the profile of CEO. Prof. Bajaj sits on the Expert Panel of CAClubindia.com and MBAClubindia.com as Investment Expert. He is actively involved in investor education through his blog www.professorbajaj.com which has a readership from 78 Countries all over the world. His articles are also regularly published in caclubindia.com , mbaclubindia.com , totalca.com , charteredclub.com, bankbazaar.com and lawyersclubindia.com . He has been awarded the title of “Best Article Writer” from caclubIndia.com in Jan 2012 and has been selected amongst “Top 5 Technical Writers” from all over India in Feb 2013. He has been invited by various TV Channels like SPIN TV, CNBC TV18, UTV Bloomberg Etc for programs like "Expert Advice" , "What Markets Want ", "Budget Analysis" etc. He has been invited by Several organisations like Lions Club, Rotary Club, Agrawal Welfare Foundation, Rajasthan Mandal, Agroha Vikas Trust, Union MF, UTI MF, Arthamitra Gurukulam, Vidyalankar Institute of Technology etc for expert lecture on "Smart Investing", "Life is A Celebration", "Financial Freedom", "The Digital IFA" etc. He was ranked 8th Merit at All India level NMAT which got him selected for MBA programme at NMIMS, Mumbai. He did his MBA with Capital Markets as his specialisation. Soft Skills has become an inevitable part of every selection process and teaching learning process these days. The students from small towns and tier II cities, in spite of being talented and well equipped with technical skills, are seen struggling in the selection process. This is because of their lack of exposure to these soft skills. Mr. Bajaj has a zeal for training candidates to develop these skills and has been imparting the same on since last two years. This zeal and passion inspired him to set up his own firm called “Knowledge Circle” which aims to train candidates for soft skills. Till date, he has trained more than 5000 participants from over 220 organizations across various fields of soft skills. He has been associated with MSBTE (Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education) to conduct Soft skills training workshop for the faculties of Polytechnic Colleges in Entire Maharashtra (Mumbai Region, Pune Region, Aurangabad Region and Nagpur Region) since last 8 years. He has also been associated with ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) for training CA Students on various topics related to Communications skills, Group Discussions etc. He was invited by Fr. Agnel Polytechnic College, Vashi for a motivational workshop for faculties. He was also invited by Vivekanad Polytechnic College for "Communication Skills and Email Etiquette" training for non-teaching staff. Apart from these, he has conducted “Capacity Building Soft Skills workshop for Faculties” at ITI Gunj, ITI Pusad, ITI Digras and ITI Umarkhed. This was the first ever soft skills workshop for faculties in the history of ITI’s in Vidarbha. He was also invited by Shivaji Education Society to conduct similar Soft skills workshops for the faculties and office staff of Shivaji Junior College Pusad, Shivaji High School Pusad, Shivaji Vidyalaya Belora and Shivaji Vidyalaya Bhojla. He has conducted training workshop on “Effective Presentation Skills” for the relationship managers of HDFC Mutual Fund, Andheri Branch, Mumbai. He has also been invited at College of Management and Computer Science, Yavatmal, College of Dairy Technology, Warud, B N College of Engineering, Pusad, B D College of Engineering, Wardha, College of Engineering and Technology, Akola, Dr.N.P.Hirani Institute of Polytechnic, Pusad etc. for the Guest lecture on “Developing Interview Skills”.

43 thoughts on “The Secret of Keeping Patience”

  6. Hi your article is Simplified , brief useful and logical to understand importance of patience for wealth creation.

    Reply

  8. Very insightful article. In simple terminology very important lesson is been thought. Patience is in deed the mantra for success

    Reply

  9. Very relevant examples and well explained.
    Looking forwards for more articles
    Keep up the amazing work !

    Reply

  10. Suaursbhji
    Your article on patience give lot of massage to all age group member & apply the rules day to day activities & every where.

    Reply

  16. Very good article Saurabh. Patience is really the key to making wealth. People often think of multibaggers and stuff without realising that the simplest way to create wealth is to have patience and believe in your investments.

    Reply

  17. Very much relatable in our everyday life. Yes, patience is the key and we’re looking forward to understand better about more generalised and essential topics like these. Excellent work!

    Reply

  18. Superb !! This the most toughest thing to learn, but if you learn you will become successful for sure

    Reply

  19. Interesting article from investor’s perspective. it teaches us how to keep mind cool & calm especially during market volatility. It is tough task to be patient. but engaging mind in other productive activities, someone can get positive results for earlier task or investment Because सब्र का फल मीठा होता है।
    KEEP IT UP
    waiting for another interesting article

    Reply

  20. सब्र का फल मीठा होता है
    This article is all about how to be patient & it’s benefits

    Reply

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