The importance of cultivating patience in your career and business

Hi! I'm Bec Sands, and I help professional women pivot to a career or business they love.

Today, I’m discussing the importance of cultivating patience in your career and/or your business. If you’re new to my work, here’s a brief bit of background about my story.

I worked my way up the corporate ladder in PR and communications for 12 years before stepping into my own business as a career pivot coach for professional women, combining this with freelance PR consulting, about a year and a half ago. I decided that I wanted the freedom to work for myself, the fulfilment of personally supporting others, and the ability to earn an abundant income. I’ve created both a successful six-figure career and a six-figure business – and I’m still going. I’ve learnt loads of lessons along the way which I love sharing with you to support you to reach your career goals too.

There’s this natural human tendency to always want what’s next – that next promotion, pay rise, to climb the ladder fast, or to get ALL the clients in your business all at once. This is made worse when we’re comparing ourselves with others whose paths may appear different – or seemingly faster – than ours.

However, the fact is that it’s the journey and what we experience along the way that ensures we are prepared and can effectively handle – and most importantly ENJOY – what the end goal brings us.

Now, I’m not suggesting sitting around and doing nothing while waiting for a promotion, or a pay rise, or to start and grow your business.

In fact, it’s the action you take that generates the momentum and helps you further along on your journey.

But in a culture of quick fixes and instant gratification, where we can get an instant hit of dopamine by picking up our smartphones any time of the day, patiently spending a lot of time putting in not-so-glamorous work day in and day out to achieve career or business goals can feel like a hard slog. To the point where we may want to quit or ask ourselves if it’s truly worth it.

It’s also implied in our society that we have to make a certain amount of money or be at a certain career point by about 30. But depending on our own individual circumstances and unique experiences, we’re all going to be at different points and our end goals are going to vary intensely.

For me, patience has never been a strong point and I have a tendency to try and rush through everything. I did all the classic things… I wanted to achieve all of my career goals at once, compared myself with others further along on my journey, and was always rushing onto the next thing before celebrating success as it happened. I’m much more conscious of this now in my business and work every day on my mindset to prevent myself from falling back into these impatient tendencies, but it definitely takes daily work.

Here’s two reasons why I believe it’s incredibly important to cultivate patience in your career and/or your business.

1.      The growth we experience along the journey IS the goal

There is literally nothing that compares with experience. You can study, think, plan, and be as determined and smart as you like, but the fact is that it’s actually experiences that provide the lessons that are needed to get to – and hold – each new level.

This DOESN’T mean waiting around. In fact, this means making the most of your time and taking more action than ever as you learn and grow. It means starting before you think you’re ready because there’s never going to be the perfect time. TODAY is the perfect time. Instead of trying to do everything at once which is overwhelming, try choosing several small actions and making them happen. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

2.      Patience helps us enjoy the process and detach from the outcome

Whenever I’ve been 100% focused on the OUTCOME in my career or business, I’ve always found myself struggling and blocked because I’m not actually being present in the journey.

We can instead cultivate patience by setting a goal to achieve a specific outcome (or something better) and then detach from the ‘what’ as well as the ‘how’. For example, when I first fully stepped into my business I knew I wanted it to replace my corporate income fairly quickly so I set that as a goal in year one.

Although I felt determined to achieve it, I wasn’t as worried about how or when it would happen. I knew that if I kept taking action and getting amazing results for my clients, loved what I was doing, and stayed in my own lane, the right results would come at the right time.

Of course, this is not something that comes “naturally” – I still have moments of stress, anxiety and doubt but I work daily at my mindset so that I can remain focused on what I want to achieve, rather than what I don’t want to happen. This means doing things both for my mind and body like a journalling and gratitude practice; daily yoga and meditation; reading books and listening to podcasts on carer, business, marketing and mindset; working with incredible coaches and doing courses to learn from those who have gone before me; and just sitting down and doing. The. Work.

Cultivating patience does NOT mean sitting back and waiting. It means taking action now, but being present in the journey and knowing that everything worthwhile takes time to achieve.