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Patience is a virtue.


Be Patient With Yourself 

How do we work and wait for the grades that may not come?


We are always in a mad rush to get things done. 

Schedules are often packed to the brim - heavy school curriculum, CCA commitments, remedial lessons, tuition classes, enrichment programmes etc. - with very little room for rest or a "real break" from all the necessary work that need to be accomplished. 

It is not easy to be a student. 

Drowning in the demands of student life, it can be difficult to take a breather and ask yourself: How am I doing? Am I coping well? What am I learning? Do I understand my work well?

It seems almost counter-intuitive to pause amid the deadlines we all have to meet. Yet, sometimes, it is essential to take stock of where you are before you can make a greater leap toward self-improvement. 

Here are some things we can remind ourselves:

1. Patience is a virtue - not only in the face of seemingly immovable obstacles or irresolvable conflicts, but also and especially when we are working hard towards our goals, inching slowly ahead, at times with almost imperceptible progress. It is important to not be too impatient to see results when we know full well that we are indeed putting in effort and not slacking off. 

2. Diligence is key - because hard work always pays off. An hour spent in deep contemplation of the task at hand will always help us to gain some insight, even if it comes only at a later time. Difficult things require time to master. We should not be deterred by how tedious or arduous the labour, but motivate ourselves by knowing that persevering in it will eventually lead to (some form of) success. Our Achilles' heel is very often sloth and a weak mind! 

3. Short-term goals can be our signposts - to help us measure our rate of improvement and to check if we are going in the right direction. Break down our targets into components that are do-able on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis. In this way, we will be happy having completed our daily and weekly tasks, thereby positively reinforcing our efforts to move towards the next set of targets. Having big, vague and immeasurable goals may hinder us from even taking the first step. 

4. Be flexible in our strategies - so that we do not become a stick in the mud. Albert Einstein's famous quote comes to mind: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” If we realise that whatever we are doing seems to not have any positive effect, we should look for alternatives in a sensible manner. Do not despair! It is always good to ask someone we trust for another perspective so that we can find reasonable solutions to our problems and not be stuck for too long. 

5. Lessons can be gleaned from our setbacks - and nothing we encounter is actually wasted. It is important to look at each setback as an opportunity to grow rather than to wallow in our own weaknesses and mistakes. It may feel exhausting to climb back up but as the cliché saying goes, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." We become wiser and stronger from overcoming the stumbling blocks. 

6. Challenges can help us grow - embrace them. As we progress in our learning, the exam questions, the projects, the concepts that we need to glean often become more demanding and exacting. We would do ourselves a great favour if we looked upon these challenges as necessary for our development and thus heighten our sensitivity to acquiring knowledge that is relevant to our personal goals. 

7. Take heart in the journey - and do not only fix your eyes on the destination. While is it important to have a dream / dreams that we wish to eventually fulfil, we must remember that the choices we make along the way matter. These choices determine if we will enjoy the ride. The roads that lead us to the places we want to be should not be dreary, dull or lonesome; instead, we must invite others along so that we can enjoy the process of learning and discovery with people who are also on their own journeys to find meaning in their lives.


 “We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.” - Helen Keller


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