“I don’t have the patience.”

I hear this all the time from people viewing my work.  I don’t think it’s true.

I tend to think we become who we are because of our circumstances, not necessarily our strengths.  You don’t need patience to become a craftsman.  I didn’t call myself a patient person before learning to use hand tools. 

Patience isn’t a prerequisite to doing work that requires patience.  I know, that sentence doesn’t really make sense, but it does.  Patience is the result.  It’s the result of developing a skill that requires patience, and patience is part of that skill.  If we put ourselves in a position that requires a skill, then we will learn what we need to learn in order to be successful.  (Unless we give up, but we would never do that, right?)

You might not be patient, but that doesn’t really matter right now.  What matters is: do you need to be patient?  If so, then go develop that skill with practice, and it will happen.