Patience: Is time running out?

Time is so relative and almost like sand escaping from the clenched fist. The more you clench it the quicker it escapes. As I come to the end of my innings it almost seems that I am walking or running at frantic pace but the picture of my life is changing albeit slowly and steadily. However, it still sometimes feels that the same things are repeating again and again. All of us in positions of some form of leadership or as persons who are lead are dealing with personalities which fall into four main categories, risk taking drivers, the cautious analyzers, the blockers and the showman projector who promises to deliver but remains static. Amidst all this it is important to be innovative, creative and cautiously optimistic. 

In the long journey of one's lifetime there come moments when you evaluate your life and wonder as you look back about your accomplishments and failures. At such times there can be moments of despair and joy but at such times patience is the one quality needed. The problem is that in such cases on an everyday basis we feel that the immediate problems of life and our inability to say no saps the energy levels we need to progress. At age 64 wisdom dawns on us that we need to learn how to follow the Eisenhower Matrix to get the best out of life. This means that with good planning we will eliminate almost all the things which are not urgent and not important in our life. I must have the time to do important things in life even though they are not so urgent. I must learn to delegate the tasks to others which are urgent but not important and while emergencies of a kind which are very important and urgent and need immediate attention do arise they should be rare and few. 

The other quote that is most important in the context of this blog is that while we go on looking at the past and think of highs and lows, we must realise that the way we spend our days constitutes the way we spend our lives. This is probably because as we grow older and become conscious of our impending mortality we create time for the important and not urgent things in life which we thought we could postpone a decade ago. 

The virtue of patience needs to be cultivated and for that finding reward in the journey rather than in the outcome which is the central philosophy of Karma Yoga is of vital importance. The half glass is always described as half empty rather than half full. I honestly believe that we tend to let our ego come in the way of our thinking. As leaders we think we are the repositories of wisdom while we are really just small insignificant pawns in the vast universe. Yet at the same time we are made up of all the elements of the universe. At present while life goes by and in every second we grow older a despair clings to us but in my humble opinion this is the result of us identifying with the physical, emotional and intellectual Self which is different from the Consciousness that is the underlying permanent substratum which is beyond time space an causality.While we need to use the the three C's of productive action we will find the virtue of patience and realise that time is relative.  Firstly concentration so slow one thing at a time focussed action. Consistency of action so one does not stray from the path of ethics. Lastly, non egoist Cooperation in action realising the interdependence of everything one does in life. This is the need of the day. 

Vispi Jokhi