Be patient, my friend
Many of us get so fired up to achieve our goals, that we can get a little bit impatient sometimes when things don’t happen right away. With information and applications at our fingertips more and more each day it seems, the bar has been raised in terms of expectations of instant results.
Nevertheless, it’s sometimes good to sit back and let things take their course. Not by being lazy, of course. Being passive and delaying an outcome by indifference isn’t a winning solution. Rather, putting a plan in place and executing it sometimes requires patience for success to ensue. In these cases, it can be better for the result as well as your stress levels to just resist the temptation to change directions or try new things, and just let things play out.
I mention this because I’ve had a certain goal in mind of late that I’ve been getting a bit impatient to achieve. It’s been gnawing at me a bit, and I feel like I’m not seeing the traction I want to see as of yet. It gets annoying sometimes when things don’t go according to your plans for success right away.
But as I’ve had these thoughts, I remind myself of a totally different goal I had some years ago, and how things at first seemed to be failing – but turned out to be successful. I just had to be patient and let things play out.
Here’s what happened. Some years ago, I was trying to sell a condo, and had purchased another place that was a little bit bigger out in the suburbs. The condo I was selling was kept in absolutely great shape – it looked just like new according to people who saw it, and was situated in a popular area for young adults. I worked with my realtor on doing all the research and due diligence, and felt that it was priced, staged, and marketed well. Keep in mind this was during a better real estate market.
Anyway, after the condo went on sale, I couldn’t wait for an offer to come in. I felt that I’d make a little money on the place, and given the market activity at that time, I thought it would happen within the first 2 weeks. This was typical at that time.
Well, the first few weeks went by with some showings, but no offers occurred. No sweat, I thought. Maybe by the end of the first month, something would happen.
Nothing happened in that first month. No offers.
As the second month went on, there was a decline in showings. By the end of that month, I was getting antsy. I had plans to move out to the suburbs, and assumed that this place would be sold in time for that to happen. I felt that based on the market situation, our pricing, staging, and marketing plan – we would have been achieved success. However, this hadn’t happened and things were dragging along. At the time, I started to question everything, and considered dropping the price and even potentially looking for another agent.
Then, just as the 2nd month ended, I got a call from the agent. Good news – we got an offer! Even better, we got two offers!
As it turned out, two people made separate offers on the same exact day. They both really liked the place, and actually ended up bidding full price for it. So what did we do? We then went back to them and told them the situation, and asked them to submit their best higher offer. In other words, we had a 2-party bidding war!
The net result of all of this is that I ended up selling the place, and even got a little bit more than I asked for.
Had I let my worry and impatience get the best of me, I might have lowered the price or gotten another realtor. That could have resulted in less money for me, and delayed things further. But I stayed the course, followed the plan, and it worked out to be the success for which I planned. It’s not like big money was made, but it was still a small profit that wouldn’t haven’t been there had I changed plans.
My lesson: Sometimes it’s best to be patient, keep doing things according to plan, and your efforts can totally pay off.
Now to be fair, there’s something to be said for being flexible and changing plans when needed. I do think that we can’t be rigid or static in our thinking. Plus, it’s important to recognize sunk costs and be able to act based on the present and future.
However, it depends on the situation. Sometimes we should make changes, other times we have to have belief in our plans and efforts, and stay patient. Good things can happen, and sometimes patience is a virtue with money. It could be selling a home, or it could be landing a job, getting customers for your business, getting published, or even accumulating assets for a financial goal. Whatever the case is, just keeping at it can be the right move sometimes.
My Question for You
Have you ever had a time where you just kept at it, stayed the course, and reached a goal that was money related? Or, even non-money related?
Do you find that patience is a virtue sometimes?
If you’re like many of us, and impatient to reach goals sometimes, how do you manage this?
I’m the least patient person ever.
I find I lose my patience with debt sometimes. It takes so long to see any good result that it’s exhausting and boring. But, it’s not an option!
Daisy – it’s hard to be patient, sometimes. I can especially understand that with debt, no doubt about that!
Very good topic as I often think people have no patience and want things to happen over night with no work. Its amazing that I see some people spend there paychecks in one weekend but it took them more than 80 hours to earn. One thing I had to have patience with was trying to make money online. I started a site more than two years ago and while friend and family were saying I was wasting time I kept at it. After about a year or so it starting paying off and i was receiving affiliate checks in the mail. It wasnt much but it money comes in very handy and I enjoy doing the work.
Thomas – the lack of patience when it comes to buying things can be especially detrimental. The example you gave of people spending in one weekend what took 80 hours to make is a great one.
Patience does usually pay off. For awhile, we were waiting to buy a house (maybe…we weren’t sure if we were going to stay put in Pennsylvania or if we were going to move back to Indiana). It was hard to have our down payment waiting and ready to go, but have nothing to spend it on.
It all worked out, though, and we’re in a town we love and a house that fits us well.
Kacie – that’s a good problem to have, I suppose! Glad things worked out.
This advice should be applied to stock purchases as well!
MC – it could be in many cases, though on the other side of the discussion we also don’t want to fall for the disposition effect https://squirrelers.com/2011/01/11/the-disposition-effect/
When I worked on my big goal of financial freedom, I had to be patient. It took 7 years and there were ups and downs, but I stayed the course.
krantcents – that’s a great goal, patience can have big rewards if the result is financial freedom.
Patience is really a virtue, I think in every aspect of life.
I think patience is key to everything in our lives. Good things take time and we have to allow for that. Being patient is something I have been working on cultivating more the last few years.It is still a work in progress.
Miss T – I know what you mean. It takes time to be learn to be patient, for which there is some irony involved 🙂 There are areas in which I need to be more patient, and some where it might help to be a little more impatient. But in some cases, patience definitely has a positive role.
Patience is so hard sometimes, but it is important. I just want to pay off my student loans today, but I know gutting my savings down to zero would only cover half of it and would leave me in trouble if something bad comes up. I created a plan to be paid off in 11 months, but I have to be patient for the plan to work.
Eric – good example. I think that sometimes it’s also a matter of being objective rather than reactive or overly emotional with money decisions. Your action of creating a plan seems like a smart one.
This is one of the toughest parts about money, waiting and waiting after you have done all you can. That’s why I read so many PF blogs, to keep me away from my own spreadsheets.
John – “to keep me away from my own spreadsheets” – LOL. I do get what you mean 🙂
Great story. Our debt reduction plan is going to take a while to complete, and some days I feel like I am going to lose it (as if it took us one day to get into debt in the first place)! Patience is definitely key, especially because I tend to ‘borrow trouble’, worrying about things I can’t change.
Sherrian – I empathize, debt reduction isn’t the easiest thing to be patient with. Buying things, getting ahead – that’s one thing, but eradicting debt is something I can understand doesn’t easily lend itself to patience.
Love this story!
I know that patience is a virtue, and I appreciate the reminder. Right now, we’re on track to pay off over $25,000 in debt by the end of the year. It’s in sight, but I can’t wait for that snowball to pick up speed. (Patience…) 🙂
Earn Save Live – best of luck paying off that debt! The good news is that the goal seems to be in sight for you, that’s great!
Awesome post. I’m in the same situation with our home as well (2 party bidding war) and came across this post. Patience is something that many people just don’t have. They either accept a lot less or some people just don’t want to wait out because they think the time may never come (when it does). For example, when we listed our home a few months ago, someone came in and lowballed us by almost 40%. I just laughed, but I could see how people could start bargaining and get caught up in the mix.
Whether it’s money, an education or even waiting for that tree to grow, everything DOES pay off in the long run.
Hannah – congrats on getting a bidding war for your home! That’s great, especially in this environment. I like your analogy about waiting for a tree to grow. In some cases we might want to operate very quickly, but not in all, as we know 🙂