Tags
Compassion, Difficulty, Failures, Fishing, Patience, Problems, Smiles, Tests, Wins
“The tests that are easy for us are difficult for others. This is the nature of life. And it means that we, as human beings, must learn patience and compassion. The wheel always turns.” – Harold Klemp – The Language of Soul
Fishing requires a lot of patience. People require patience too. Even you.
Have you ever found yourself becoming frustrated when you are having a difficulty? You try and try and try even harder and you still can’t get it right?
Compassion is trying to feel what the other person is feeling. Sometimes people are stumped by something you have mastered. It’s so easy to feel superior. It’s so easy to look down on others. It’s really easy to do this to yourself.
My wife is good at a lot of things I am not good at. I am good at some things she is not good at. We align perfectly in this respect. My wife’s discipline in the gym, puts me to shame. Her diet crushes mine. She motivates me to workout harder.
I am an academic. School comes easy to me. To my wife, not so much. I help her with her writing, show her how to study and learn new things, teach her how a consistent study habit is better than inconsistent studying. She learns that learning is easier when we are comfortable making mistakes.
We are all good at certain things and suck at others. It’s better to give ourselves a break when we are learning something new. When we learn something new, we fail. We fail frequently. When we fail, we can take it easy on ourselves. We can analyze why we failed, learn from it, and move forward. When we give ourselves the right to fail, failure becomes easier to deal with. Once this occurs, we learn more, because we are OK with ourselves when we fail.
People are like this too. Make it easy for them when they fail. Don’t look down on them. Don’t make snide comments. Tell them it’s OK. Help them see where they made a mistake and show them what they learned. Then help them start again.
You’ll be amazed how good it feels to help someone learn something or get a win for themselves. This is why my wife loves being a teacher. She gets to see her kids make little wins every day. She says, “When my students make a breakthrough, they smile from ear-to-ear. I never get tired of those smiles.” We are all kids in her classroom, looking for a patient teacher who will show us how to do something and keep working with us until we win.
I hope all you have a great Saturday! Here’s to patience and compassion for our friends, our loved ones, and ourselves.
Until next time…
Dave
