Patience is the mother of a beautiful child

“Patience is the mother of a beautiful child.”

African Proverb

Patience is the mother of a beautiful child. Have you ever wanted anything so strongly that you couldn’t wait for it? Perhaps it was obtaining your driver’s license, discovering the latest product, or receiving your dream job. This desire can cause you to feel impatient. You want everything to happen now! This is where the wise old phrase “Patience is the mother of a beautiful child.” comes into focus.

Those words contain one very significant reality about reaching your goals and making something worthwhile. In this proverb, the term “beautiful child” is an analogy. It’s not the same as actually becoming a parent. It stands for anything worthwhile or satisfying that you’re putting a lot of effort into achieving, such as a talent, a goal, or a lifelong ambition.

What about “the mother”? That is the essence of patience. Through every step of the road, from the first small idea to its complete realization, patience develops and safeguards your goal. In the same way that a woman patiently nurtures her upcoming baby until it is born, patience allows your goals the time and room they need to grow.

You see, impatience seeks to force things before they are ready. It’s like planting a seed and repeatedly digging it up to see if it’s grown. Impatience disturbs natural processes and inhibits growth. Genuine beauty and quality require time to nurture and manifest.

Think about learning to play the guitar. You’ll never become a master overnight simply because you desire it. It takes patience – practicing little by little each day, making mistakes, adjusting your technique, trying again. Impatience would have you quit after a week of frustration. But those who patiently work through the struggles are the ones whose skills eventually blossom into something special.

Or consider an entrepreneur launching a new business. The initial phase is like preparing the soil – conducting research, writing plans, securing funding. After then, running the business requires constant patience as it grows through its early challenges, mending what goes wrong, and building it over time. Impatience would gamble it all on get-rich-quick schemes instead of allowing it to build naturally. Patience births true entrepreneurial “masterpieces.”

Conclusion

The proverb reminds us that whether your pursuit is building a career, creating art, or any other meaningful endeavor, impatience is the enemy. It leads to cutting corners, crude outputs, and failing to achieve your full potential. But patience keeps you committed through every vital phase, persistently doing the work until your efforts fully ripen into something you can be truly proud of – your own beautiful child brought into this world.

So whenever you feel consumed by wanting to rush things, remember this ancient wisdom. Good things can’t be forced but must be allowed to unfold over time. Keep faith in the process, tend to it diligently, and wait for excellence to be born. Impatience breeds failure, but patience? Patience nurtures a beautiful child.