Patience is a Virtue. This statement cannot be more appropriate today than it was ever before. Today, we live in a world that works on 5G, network. If you were to enter a website, and if it doesn’t load within the 3 second mark, then 80% of its visitors abandon the site.
You click on Youtube video, if the content doesn’t hit the point home in 2 minutes, then 85% of the viewers skip and move to the next video.
Our Attention span has dwindled
In other words the attention span of the masses have drastically reduced from 15 minutes to 3 seconds. The problem is that this same attitude is being carried out on all of the areas without giving Commonsense an opportunity to explain.
It is estimated that 95% of the people who join a fitness routine will quit the program exactly at the start of the second month. There may be many reasons for this, but the prime one being that “Too high Expectations at too short a time”.
Why are my muscles not showing up?
What does this mean? Simply that the first day a person starts on a fitness program, he or she wants to see the result on his or her body immediately.
There is just one problem with this attitude. It is like expecting a New Born baby to stand up and walk the very next day it was born. Would this be possible? Never, not even in a 1000 years.
Time controls everything and anything. It is like planting a tree and expecting its fruits the very next week. Would this be possible? No, not to the person who has a balanced mind and who is well aware of the work needed to go in before the first shoots appear, before the child’s legs gain strength to crawl, before the first client walks in for a discussion.
Fitness and Muscle building is no different from planting a Tree
The same is true when it comes to Fitness. Do not expect to see results the very next day or even a month later, or better still, even a year later. Just continue your work steadfastly, sincerely, with dedication and love.
Remember, the improvements are compounded. After a workout, there wouldn’t be much to see or observe, but each single day when you pay your dues, the body will develop internally and in small jumps externally. These changes will not be available or even observable to the naked eye. But with each passing of the day, Changes will become more Pronounced.
The Proverbial time
Like in most posts we specially employ a Proverbial time to send home the message better.
There is this proverbial illustration in China. “If you want the fish soup, then patiently wait to catch your fish”
The story goes something like this, there was a young man who had desires to become Rich after seeing his neighboring Rice farmers who owned huge houses and assets.
So he walks up to his wife and tells her of his plan, how he will buy a land and plant Rice crop on it, and after which he will reap cart loads of harvest, then take it to the market place and sell them for a huge gain, then on, return back to the village and buy out all of the lands, then on, plant more Rice, and reap more harvest, and more profit will be made, then on, we would be able to buy the next village, the town we are in, the city that the town is situated in, and probably the whole city.
Great Vision but poor Action
With this Vision, he got his wife and his son excited before he headed to the nearby head rice farmer for a land loan and subsequent negotiation. The rich rice farmer man was happy to receive the young man and more so happy to learn of his interest in farming and above all the loan that he is giving the man which apparently would have to be returned with interest after the harvest. The deal was finalized and the land was his to plant his crops.
Without any delay, the young man started off with the planting of young rice shoots that he had purchased from the neighboring fields which were flooded with rice yields.
When the planting was complete, the young man headed back home tired and exhausted. After a meal and a nap, he told his wife that he is heading back to see the crops. His wife interjected and asked him, “why?” To this the young man replied that he his heading to check the growth of his rice crops.
The wife laughs at his foolishness and tells, ” you have a great vision but a poor action plan”, and then she continues on, ” just wait patiently, if you want to enjoy the fish soup, wait for the fish to snap the bait, it does take time, and so does making of the soup, and more so with growth there is a whole lot of time involved”.
But, the field next to ours is ready for yield, then why not ours? He replied back. To this the wife rebuts “But they were all planted months earlier but on the other hand you started farming just today”
The young man did not take his wife’s explanation for an answer and walked out of his house to see the crops. There was no change, in their growth.
Then a couple of weeks of impatience passes by. Now the crops are showing some signs of growth, excited with this, an idea dawned upon the young man.
“I suppose, the crops need my assistance, so why not I creep out during the thick of the night and head to my field and then gently pull each crop up, so that they might use my assistance to grow a bit taller”
That very night he put this idea into full action. He woke up when the entire village was asleep, headed to his field, then started to pull each of his plants a bit up, with the notion that they would use his assistance to grow.
Foolishness at its heights
Tired and exhausted, the young man returns early in the morning, happy and satisfied with his deed, heads straight to his bed. Couple of days passes buy, the young man sees no progress in growth with his crops but a saggy look of dryness.
Standing there, wondering why his crops were not green and bright as they were the last week, the young man heads straight to his next door farmer to ask him of the reason as to why his crops were dry and saggy.
What did happened to my crops, why are they not growing as they were supposed to? To this his farmer friend questions him back, what did you do to them? The young man simply narrated the deeds that he performed to his crops.
To this, his farmer friend burst out in laughter. “I have never seen Foolishness at its heights”, he then exclaimed, “You are a fool, you have destroyed your crops and your livelihood with that, all because of your foolishness and impatience, your crops are all dead, they have no life in them, and this is because, you pulled them out of their houses. Now go now, and sell your house to repay the loan that you took from me, there is not going to be any harvest this Spring”
The 7 year old son teaches his father a better bitter lesson
The farmer’s rebukes gets to the young man’s head, dejected and disowned, he heads back to his home and is met with his 7 year old son. The son rushes to his father and asks,
Son: “Father, I want to ride your horse”
Young man: “No son”, [low key dejected voice]
Son: “When will you give me your horse?”
Young man: “When you grow up” [low key dejected voice]
Son: “And how long will that be?”
Young man: “10 years” [low key dejected voice]
Conclusion
All of us know the truth yet still we always pursue foolishness, for folly lies always hidden deep within telling us things and ways that are Contrary to Nature.