There are two times when athletes have no patience. If an athlete can bring themselves to understand those times when much patience is needed, they will be so much better off.
New To Training
The first, is the athlete new to training hard every day. Numerous times I have seen an athlete who basically performed off of talent, and one day they got an idea. They said to themselves “wow I am doing well and I do not take this seriously imagine what will happen when I train hard”. This can be a death trap for an athlete. Why, because they expect immediate success in what they are working at. They figure because they did nothing before and now they are working on everything, they should be way better when it comes time to compete. This is far from the case.
The Weak Will Fade
For whatever reason the hard work usually does not show until later, but only the patient athletes who truly believes in the work they put in gets to see this. The athlete with no patients get flustered at first chance and wants to quit, or sees no point in working hard. Only the strong survive.
Patience During an Injury
The second place where athletes show themselves having very little patience is after an injury. It is dreadful to be hurt everyone knows this, but holding your cool is a must.
The athlete that stays patient and positive always seems to have a quicker recovery. They do not complain and make their body even more stressful than it already is and be a cancer to everyone else. They just go to work on their rehab and do whatever they can do to get better.
They have the understanding that it will take time but when they come back they will be stronger, because what does not kill us really does make us stronger.
Too many athletes get reinjured because they did not have the patience to just sit out one more day or one more week, or the one more month that they needed. Huge mistake and sometimes can put an athlete back to square one.
It is all about having patience. Sometimes it is the most patient animals that win in the wild when trying to get food, or trying not to get eaten. No different for humans. Sit in the background for a little and wait for your time.
I would love to hear about a time when you were not patient and when you look back you wish you were. Leave a comment below.
