First, let us define patience.  According to Wikipedia,

Patience (or forbearing) is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on annoyance/anger in a negative way; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties. Patience is the level of endurance one can take before negativity. It is also used to refer to the character trait of being steadfast. Antonyms include hastiness and impetuousness.

Now going back…  Patience was never my virtue.  I don’t know if it has something to do with my career in Supply Chain where we need to be always on our toes to support increase in demand, changes in forecast, issues in production line, delays in deliveries of ingredients and the list of challenges goes on so everything needs to be done in a flash and we need to be able to make quick but intelligent decisions to create new plans.  Some people even think that SC people are just being difficult but what they don’t know is that we have to balance a lot of things and at the end of the day we want to make the best decision that is win-win for everyone which includes but not limited to our external customers, ultimately the consumers, and our internal customers within the whole chain.  Maybe it was also because I was a Customer Service so I know what level of service we should be providing to customers that sometimes I get impatient with bad service in a retail store or restaurant.  But whatever the reason is, over the years I have been trying to focus on this virtue with the hope that one day I will be able to acquire it but all my efforts in the past have proven to be futile.

But on a recent trip to Manila and Boracay with 3 colleagues cum friends (2 SG and 1 TH) I was able to prove to myself that I am mellowing down and have improved in terms of having patience.  I was amazed that I can actually consider the option of becoming a tour guide, but mind you I just need to brush up on our national language, history and geography.

At the back of my mind I was exploring why and what could have possibly caused this startling change.

Maybe it helped that I started investing as I read somewhere that investing is not a sprint but rather a marathon, that it is a patience game.  And for the past 2 years my patience has been slowly tested and forged like a metal being forged by a sword smith to become a world class quality sword.

Maybe it also helped that I got promoted last year to become a Team Lead and accepted the fact that I need to change.  That I need to set an example to my team.  That I need to be more diplomatic and patient both with my peers and the managers.  It’s not an easy task to keep cool and stay calm but so far I think I am doing a good job.  It was not like before that I would lose my cool and turn so red and immediately blast at people or the exact opposite of just bursting into tears because I am so upset that I don’t want to say anything which I will regret later.  Now I understand Uncle Ben’s statement from Spiderman the movie, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”  Although my power is not that great, whether I like it or not, it’s a different ballgame when you become part of the management team.

Maybe I am just mellowing down because I am getting old.  Well, it’s a fact of life.  I just have to accept it.  And you too will reach there eventually 🙂

At the end of the trip, I thank my friends for giving me a chance to be their tour guide and I hope that they enjoyed their trip to Makati and Boracay to the point that they will share their experience to other people and encourage them to travel to PH.  I also hope they go back to PH as there are 7,000 plus more islands to explore that even I have never been to.  As for me, I’m still looking for the perfect travel buddy who is keen to do land travel which means driving long distances but with random stops to admire the view or eat the local food 🙂  A perfect travel buddy who will help plan the itinerary but will not feel bad when the reality veers away from the itinerary.  A perfect travel buddy who will enjoy partying in a bar but as well as quiet time in the beach watching the sunset.  Oh well, life goes on, until the next adventure 🙂