Success requires planning, focus and patience.

Patience is often the most difficult part of this formula. Success requires doing the things we need to do to get where we want to go. Success requires getting things done. The most difficult part of this process is the ability to be patient long enough to continue the effort required to achieve our goal.

There is something very powerful that results from our ability to be patient and focus on the outcome. It helps our clients feel good about themselves and the effort they are making to achieve their goals. It keeps us centered and focused and gives us the fortitude to be patient long enough to achieve success.

I recently heard a speaker tell a story that I had been told many years ago. It is the story of a man who found and hung a painting of a small row boat. It was a painting of a row boat beached in the sand. The boat’s oars were lying at each side of the boat in the sand. A visitor saw the painting and was startled by how sad and bleak it looked. He was about to ask the man why he would hang a painting with such a dark image when he looked down at the bottom of the painting and read the painting’s title “And the tide will always return.” What this means is that you have the ability to focus on the outcome, work hard with an optimistic attitude and be patient while working for good results that will deliver success.

Now go seize the day!