Patience

September 20, 2025 –
A common theme at The Project is the 24 hours in each day, the only commodity we are all issued in equal measure. Some may have more money or stature than some, but we all have the same 24 hours. The only days we don’t have them are the day we are born and the day we die. 

Those on The Project are determined to put their 24 hours to work for them every day, from the day they started their Path until their day is done.

The only real decision we have to make is how we are going to spend those 24 hours. Are we going to do things our heart commands us to do? Are we going to make our time serve us? Or are we going to squander that time by reacting to outside influences and fitting into the slots others have assigned us? 

Those who get on in this life have the patience to put their 24 hours to work for themselves every day. Not some days and not others, not some months and not others: every day means every day. When we do that, the life we are meant to live awaits. 

August 22, 2025 –
A contradiction of The Project is that being on your path requires work, but also that it doesn’t require work. Both are true. 

Make no mistake about it, self-cultivation requires effort. You’re here because you have decided you want something different and you had the wisdom to plot a different course, the courage to go and follow that course, and you are showing the patience to follow that course every day. No one is doing it for you and this takes work. 

On the other hand, The Project teaches you to live life from the heart and to maximize your talents, and what is difficult about doing this? Nothing really. 

Of course, being on The Project means breaking away from the herd, going the other way, and taking roads less traveled, and this can be challenging. 

But those who have been on their path for even a short while find that challenge is exchanged for enthusiasm and ease because you are living in concert with your inner self, and nothing is easier than that. Your path turns out to be no work at all because your heart and your instincts are taking you exactly where you are meant to go.   

August 5, 2025 – 
A common saying here at The Project is that adherents are not transported to the end of the rainbow, they have the same ups and downs, trials and travails – plus the same good days – as everyone else. 

One thing those on The Project have that others might have that others might not have is the patience to let the great days and the days that are seemingly beyond tolerance pass without getting too worked up about either. 

Because it takes patience to do this, to not produce instant, knee jerk reactions to both good fortune and bad. It takes patience to realize that life is not lived either on cloud nine or in the deepest valleys. 

It takes patience to take lifes ups and downs in stride, and Project adherents do just that. They know that most days are spent on an even keel and that their paths will always take them back to life’s center.

July 26 –
Recently in the Courage blog we talked about how asking the question “What if?” was how we humans advanced, both collectively and individually. Someone wonders what would happen if we did this and they go and do it. They’re happy words, words of enthusiasm and hope, words asked by vital people looking to make things happen. 

They can also be sad words, though, when people ask, “What if?” while looking back at time squandered. They are words of despair and frustration, looking back at opportunities missed and talents wasted. They generally stem from a life spent reacting to outside influences, a life where the patience to maximize your time every day was not shown. 

Those working The Project have the patience to ask “What if?” in the best possible context. From the day they made the spiritual commitment until their day is done, those on The Project have listened to their inner self, followed their hearts, and trusted their instincts.

When the time comes to examine their life, they are not looking back at what might have been; they are looking back on time well spent. They asked themselves, “What if we spend our life on our path?” and are looking back at a wondrous answer to that question. 

July 18, 2025 – 
One of our most trite and well-known sayings is “Life is a series of choices.” As a philosophy, it is neither fresh nor original, a good working definition of trite. 

Those working The Project tend to ignore this saying because they know that life is really only one choice: am I going to make my time serve me, or am I going to squander the talents I was issued at birth? 

While only one choice, it is one we make every day: are we going to be on our path today or not? Each day we must decide whether to maximize our time and talents or squander those two precious gifts. It takes patience – and no small amount of it  – to choose to be on your path every day, without fail, from the day we make the commitment until our day is done. 

Deciding to maximize our time and talents takes us to our path. Having the patience to do it every day keeps us there. Deciding to do it is the only decision that matters, ensuring we will live the life we were put here to live. 

July 11, 2025 – 
Today’s blog entry was inspired by yesterday’s Quotebook selection. It’s from John Wooden, an American basketball coach: 

If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?

We noted that we only have one chance at this life. This is true regardless of whichever spiritual or religious beliefs we may or may not have. Perhaps another existence awaits you. Perhaps not. None of us knows for sure. 

It doesn’t matter. Whatever awaits us after this life – be it something or nothing – you cannot deny this is our only chance at this life.

Patience is required to get the most out of it. Of course, we need dreams to chase and a purpose for our lives. But few things of value happen overnight. Sure, our path may be rightly set and our effort true, but if we’re throwing in the towel at the first reverses, we will be looking back at time squandered instead of summits attained. 

Patience means consistency, too. We must live for ourselves, living  the lives others want us to lead. You are the only one who can walk your path. The best lives are lived by those who show the patience to do this every day.

July 4, 2025 –
Patience is the anchor of the wisdom/courage/patience triumvirate for reason: it is useless without the other two elements.