For those who abhor any kind of change, there are also people who want to challenge the status quo, move forward quickly, and take a leap of faith. Some people are able to finish people's sentences. I click "Send" before I reread the email and touch my feet while the microwave works. It has two speeds: full speed ahead and stops.
Can You Recognize Yourself from This Description?
Yes, that's right. Trying to control my impulsive and impatient genes continue to be a frontier of growth and work for me. Of course, actions are carefully calculated, and sometimes it is better to slow down when you have to choose your words carefully. Impatience is framed as a negative.
Constructive Patience Generates Collaboration
Beth Mooney refreshed it for me at the Women in Banking conference in New York City. Beth is the President and CEO of Key Bank and is considered one of the most powerful women in the banking industry in America. She used the term "constructive impatience. It is in these cases that the status quo is unacceptable and action is needed. Instead of responding with an instinctive reaction or a whiplash of frustration or anger, constructive impatience builds an argument for careful action that requires cooperation and collaboration.
Resilience is growing through challenges and opportunities, so constructive impatience creates behaviors that influence the outcome. When a situation is intolerable, constructive impatience combined with courage - produces surprising results.
It was constructive impatience that led eight-year-old Vivian Harr to open a lemonade stand in 2012. The images of two Nepalese brothers holding hands and fighting with a board on their backs were all she needed. Making lemonade in the kitchen with her mother's help, Vivian did what any child would do: stand in a corner and sell lemonade. But there was a purpose behind it. In the first six months, her lemonade raised more than $100,000 for the anti-slavery campaign, Not For Sale.
Through Constructive Impatience, Anything is Possible
Constructive impatience knows no bounds. With the help of his father, Eric Harr, Make A Stand Lemon-Aide is a complete production company selling bottled drinks in 70 retail stores on the West Coast. Half of the profits are donated to UNICEF, the Emancipation of Slaves, and the International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labor.
Dr. G. Venkataswamy, known as Dr. V, knew that cataract surgery could successfully treat cataract, the leading cause of blindness in India. Not discouraged by the government model, he founded Aravind Eye Hospital.
Despite suffering from arthritis, with constructive impatience and hard work, he held a scalpel in his hand and was able to perform more than 100 surgeries a day. As he sat in the center of the operating room, patients radiated around him like spokes from a wheel. He simply moved the patient's chair.
The Aravind Eye Care System is now a model for India and the world. It offers a model from which U.S. healthcare can learn very well.
Five ways to turn constructive impatience into reality:
- You have a clear understanding of what impatience is and why it is important. Why isn't it important at first, and why is it so important for others to help you?
- Constructive means that improvement is the goal. What are the measurable signs that improvement is happening?
- Start small - one cup of lemonade at a time, and a mile takes time. But an inch is child's play.
- Ask for what you need. If you don't, you won't get it.
- Celebrate often. Cheer when your child steps forward - not when your adult teenager runs a marathon. Constructive impatience needs to be encouraged.
Read the words of a Renaissance man always impatient for new interactions and ways of seeing the world.
"I had the impulse to try it. It is not enough to know it, it must be applied. It is not enough to have the will to do it." - Leonardo da Vinci.