Patience is the skill to accept or tolerate delay without becoming annoyed or anxious and without responding in disrespect or anger.
But today, the trend is different.
“Reduce 10kg of body weight in one week.”
“Get rich in one month.”
Are these sentences look attractive?. Not really it is only in words.
Today most of us want fast results.
But if we want quality results and sustain them for a longer duration, we need patience.
With patience and dedication, we can achieve anything in life.
Here are three inspiring short stories on patience to explain to you the importance of it.
#1. Short Stories on Patience – King and the Old Woman
Image Source: Photo by Max Goodrich from Pexels
Once there was a great king. One day he was traveling alone in a forest. Soon, he lost his way.
He looked around from a hilltop but could not see any people or villages nearby. It was becoming dark.
After some time, there was light shining from a long distance.
Then he started walking in that direction and soon reached a hut.
Outside the hut, he saw an old lady cleaning the place.
Seeing him, she welcomed him, thinking that he was a soldier from the army.
She gave the king some water to clean himself and water for drinking. She then spread a mat for him to relax.
King started relaxing.
After some time, she placed a plate of hot rice and curry in front of him.
The king was so hungry that he quickly put his fingers on the hot food. The hot food burnt his fingers, and he spilled some rice on the floor.
The old lady saw this and said, “Oh, you seem too impatient and hasty like your king. That is why you have burnt your fingers and lost some food”.
Hearing the old lady’s words, the king was surprised and asked her, “Why do you think our king is impatient and hasty?.”
The old lady smiled and began to explain, “My dear son, our king is having a big dream of capturing all his enemy forts.
In that, he is ignoring all the small forts and focusing only to capture the massive forts.”
The king interrupted the old lady and said, “That’s a good thing. What is the problem with that?”.
She smiled and replied, “Wait, my son. Like your impatience in eating the food, you burned your fingers and wasted some food.
In the same way, the king’s impatience to defeat the enemies quickly resulted in the loss of men in his army.
Instead, if you eat the less hot food at the edge first and then at the center, you would not have burnt your fingers and not wasted your food.
Similarly, the king should target the small forts and strengthen his position. It helps him capture the massive forts without losing his men in the army.”
Hearing this, the king understood his mistake and realized that one should have patience and avoid making any haste in any situation.
Moral of the story
When we want to achieve something in life, we should first understand the process and then work on it.
Instead, if we are looking for quick results, we will become impatient and never reach what we want in our life.
For example:
If we want to reduce our weight by 10kg in one week, that will not happen.
Instead, focus on 1kg reduction in 2 to 3 weeks and 10kg in 6 months.
In the long run, with patience, we will achieve our goal.
#2. Short Stories on Patience – Two toothbrush companies
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Once two companies are competitors in selling toothpaste and toothbrushes for adults.
After a few years, there were requirements at the market for toothbrushes for kids.
Both the companies are well aware that the company which comes out with the product first will have a higher probability of dominating the market.
The first company went with the logical approach instead of doing field research.
Since adults have big hands, they need long and thick toothbrushes. Whereas kids have smaller hands, they need a small handle and thin bristle toothbrushes.
So, without any second thought and to gain the market share, they designed and produced the kid’s toothbrush in a few weeks and launched it in the market.
On the other side, the second company did extensive field research. They went to hundreds of kids and observed how they held the toothbrush and brushed their teeth.
They also took feedback from kids directly on their likings.
After the research, the second company decided that kids need toothbrushes similar to adults in handle length with some grooves and smaller bristles.
The reason is kids clung to the toothbrush instead of holding the toothbrush in their fingers as adults.
Thus instead of making a small handle toothbrush, they went with a toothbrush with a long handle, which helps to hold the brush effectively.
In addition, they added different colors and cartoon characters to the toothbrush to make it more attractive for the kids.
They launched the toothbrush in the market and sold a record number of toothbrushes in a few months. They started dominating the market and increased their market share.
Moral of the story
We should have patience in building our knowledge and understanding of what is required to achieve our goal.
The quality time we spend on the initial stages helps to gain confidence in the longer run.
Never go for shortcuts. It will give us only instant success and then fades away. But to maintain it consistently, we need patience.
#3. Short Stories on Patience – Never give up
Image Source: Photo by Serge van Neck from Unsplash
In a beautiful village, there was a family of four. They moved to the city to start a business.
With their little savings and financial help from their close circle, they opened a shop.
On the first day of opening the shop, there were no customers. And in the first week, there were no customers. Even after a month, there were no customers.
During these difficult times, the family didn’t lose hope.
Every day the man woke up early and got ready to open the shop. His wife prepared food for him. In the night, he closed his shop late.
They were having only one meal per day. But they never give up.
After close to 2 months, they had their first customer. He treated his customer well and gave quality products.
With quality service to the first customer and through word of mouth, he started receiving more customers to his shop. And it was no looking back for him after his first customer.
Now, it’s been 20 years since he started. His business has grown big and now has multiple branches across the city. His son and daughter also started managing his business.
Still, every day the man wakes up early, the lady now cooks for both her children and her husband. They open their shop early and close their shop late. They were patient and never gave up.
Moral of the story
Time can test our patience though we should never let ourselves down.
Develop the never-give-up attitude and build patience to get success.
Final thoughts
These stories must have taught us the importance of patience. With patience, we can achieve anything in our life.
Everything needs time. We cannot expect fruit from the day we plant the seed.
Let us wait for our fruit, and it will taste good.
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