Memories...
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
ON WAITING AND THE VIRTUES OF (IM)PATIENCE?
Friends who know me understand that one of my greatest weaknesses is impatience.
In fact, I have frequently been asked that question during interviews, ie. What is your greatest weakness in life?
My reply is always: impatience.
Time is very very precious to me. I always and still feel that there is much in life for me to accomplish, so much that I find it hard to sit and stay still.
You noe what they always say, that an impatient person is generally more irritable, less calm and stable perhaps. And more likely to have a not-so-mild temper.
I tend to see more of the other side of the bridge though.
I think that positive impatience drives a person to push himself, to seek to achieve leaping success and to accomplish something that ll normally take 2 years into 1 year for instance.
And impatience can lead one to seek rectification over the excesses of slowness.
I never like waiting for buses and trains as a kid. And this pushed me to dream and strive for my own bike 1 day, which i finally achieved when I was 20. I dun think i could have done so if I were a patient person.
And i dun think Franklin Roosevelt (1 of my all-time fave leaders) could have done what he did for the American people with his New Deal in 100 days, if he haven't been impatient.
So I guess the bottom line is that one needs to know when to be patient, and when to be impatient in life. And that patience isnt all that perfectly good, while impatience isnt all that perfectly bad.
By the way, I can be very patient for instance, when I fancy a girl. Haha.
