Be Impatient with yourself if you want to reach your goals

The Crowd says Don’t Push

These days, it seems that everybody is urging us to relax, take it easy, give it some slack, go with the flow, don’t get your panties in a bunch. It goes on. They tell us that rushing will not get us to our destination any faster. It will only stress us out, cause worry lines and antagonize our coworkers and family.

The Crowd is Wrong

I don’t agree. A laid back attitude may be fine when you are coping and don’t know what is important but it is not the attitude that will lift you from ordinary to extraordinary or take you from a ‘settle for’ lifestyle to a ‘to die for’ lifestyle. For that you need to be impatient.

But Don’t Push Others

This doesn’t mean yelling at slow waiters or at your coworkers when they have a manana work ethic. You can’t control any body else and yelling won’t really make them any better workers or change their attitude. Impatience with them will only get you heated about something you can’t control which will eat at you and ultimately prevent you from being productive.

Push Yourself

It means being impatient with yourself. It means not accepting excuses or rationalizations that let you off the hook for delivering everything you are capable of now, when you need it. How important are your goals? How much is it worth to you that you accomplish them and how do you measure the value of the time it takes for you to get there?

Slipping can become a habit

Letting your goals slip may seem trivial. You minimize the cost of a delay. How much difference can a week or two make? Maybe it isn’t much but once you accept one delay, it becomes much easier to accept the next and before you know it, your dream has moved from imminent to next year or maybe never- and you let it happen.

Be Hard on Yourself

How is it that you will put up with excuses from yourself that you would never buy from others? I am no psychologist and I am not going to offer an explanation. It doesn’t matter the reason. Going easy on yourself is not getting you to your goals. Don’t do it. Be impatient about your goals. Be critical of yourself and hold yourself to the standards that will make you work up to your capabilities.