Patience & Understanding

One of the things that I have come to realize this past year... is that I can be a bit of a control freak.

For those of you who know me really well, you are probably thinking "well yeah, you are just figuring that out now?"

But the truth is you can inherently know something about yourself your whole life, but the weight of that knowledge will have no affect until you verbalize it...until you truly acknowledge what that means about you or how you see and interact with the world around you. 

After high school I slowly began to realize that I had to let go of being a perfectionist because no person can, will, or should try to be perfect. And though I may still be a control freak and a perfectionist at times, I am honestly amazed and proud of how much I have mellowed out. Again I am sure my close friends are thinking you are still pretty intense which is definitely true, but progress has been made and I am not finished yet. 

I truly believe that life is about learning and progressing, and that as long as you are living then there is still more for you to do, see, experience, and learn. I have also come to realize that perspective and understand are everything. A positive attitude and a belief in one's self are all a person really needs to overcome any obstacle. I heard somewhere that God does not give you what you want but what you need, and that its up to us to realize that. 

Coming to India is exactly what I needed to help me continue to progress as an individual. Since being here I have really started to understand what it means to be patient... and how understanding why something is the way it is or why someone is the way they are... can immensely help the amount of patience you have. 

When we take the time to understand a person, a culture, or a situation, not only can we learn to appreciate it, but we can learn how to work with it. I may never be able to fully overcome my tendency to act as a control freak. But maybe with time and tons of patience and understanding, I will be able to start reshaping my intensity into pure passion and my perfectionism into drive and diligence. 

So my lesson today is to be patient and try to understand: that differences are good, that we grow more from things that seem difficult at first, and that the only thing you can really control is your own attitude.