I've been thinking quite a bit lately about patience... and how, at times, I lack patience. Most recently (yesterday), I've lacked patience in trying to sell my car. It's been a bit of a headache.

I've been fortunate that I've had some great gigs during my voiceover career, but sure, I always aim to achieve more and better gigs.  I audition (and as you're supposed to, I then forget about the auditon - the old "submit it and forget it" adage), I market myself, I have a voiceover coach who helps me... and eventually, I do reap the benefits of all of those efforts. I think generally, I'm pretty patient when it comes to my work. Sure, I have my days, but we all do. But as far as voiceover goes, generally, there's nothing you can do except work to better yourself. You can't influence the buyer or agent to love your voice. Either they will or they won't. It is what it is.

Why do we become impatient? I guess it's because when we do become impatient, it's due to things not moving along quickly enough for our liking. There's the notion that we can influence the person who is making us impatient. I guess you can to some extent, but it has to be a positive influence.

You'll drive yourself insane if you become impatient all the time. Think about it.

I just found this article in WikiAnswers about the definition of "patience is a virtue." 

It says: "Patience is a virtue because it makes us better people. The definition of the word is to tolerate delay. This implies self control and forbearance as opposed to wanting what we want when we want it. How many times have we jumped the gun and found out it it would have been better to tolerate delay or had self control? What did we miss out on? Did we hurt someone because of lack of patience? Did our lives just change completely just because we couldn't control ourselves? Patience is not only a virtue but a necessity for a happy existence."

Ain't that the truth?

Be patient. Before you react, think. Give it a minute, an hour, a day.