Another year is here with us again. Philosophically, it is not the year that may look new, but a change in behaviour and attitude can make the year, 2024 a New Year for all of us. During the tail end of the year, 2023,whilst deliberating on the first article to work on for 2024, I became fully convinced to caption the year, 2024 as the Year of Patience and Faithfulness. After sharing the theme with our office staff, I have decided to equally expatiate on this timely theme with us, as a larger community. 

Essentially, it is important for us to reflect on our conducts, deeds, and our slant to our purpose-given assignment at the workplace, home, and our response towards the development of our country, Ghana. In 2024, we must embrace this great virtue - PATIENCE! The word, patience, has been defined in diverse ways by several authorities. However, I define it in the following ways: It is the power to control our emotion(s) in a highly provocative condition. 

Additionally, patience is the predisposition to wait in earnest till a desired goal is achieved. In other words, patience is the internal virtue to bear soreness, disappointment, infamy, and difficult challenges for a long period of time. 

One day, my spouse sought my opinion on one of the key virtues for sustainable personal development, and to her amazement, I said, PATIENCE. Yes, patience! Our world is surrounded with numerous impatient people whose lives are so entangled with extreme anger, animosity, and pride that, they are unable to identify the good side of life. Most of the decisions taken by people in times of frustrations, tests, and trials are done in haste. 

As a psychotherapist, I have seen lots of people rush into marriage and strange business partnerships for example, to prove a point to their immediate society, only to be heavily disappointed by their partners’ hidden agenda over the passage of time. We are so much in haste that, no due diligence and critical search on relevance concerning our decision-making process is done, until the unfortunate incident happens. I have also seen how the desire for more money through dishonest gain has ended the lives of many. In addition, I have also seen how men’s craze for power, defined by a besotted lifestyle, has finally taken them away from the face of the earth. 

Time has a way of defining our character. We should believe in perfect timing in all our endeavours. Funnily enough, if you are the type who waits till a desired goal is achieved before you become nice to people, you lack this inner stamina for exploits called PATIENCE.

Mature people who express mental stability even in the midst of any discomfort, receive favour before God and man. The best litmus test to identify this virtue (patience) is when a person is placed in hot water i.e. in a difficult situation. A philosopher once said, it takes the intensity of high temperature to release the true colour of a tea bag, and not when, the latter is in cold water. Hence, let's learn to master our emotions. 

On one occasion, someone asked me a question: As a leader, how can one deal with insults, affronts, and handle repulsive attitudes people display towards them or in their presence? My response was simple. I said, ‘Time has a way of rewarding people who have learnt the art of mastering their emotional imbalance.’ In other words, patient people are calm, unruffled, tolerant, and they know the right avenue to express their collective emotions without degrading their real self. 

This statement is deeply rooted in Victor Hugo’s philosophical avowal: ‘Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.’ This is the heart of an optimist in an opaque situation, believing that everything that has a beginning, eventually has an end. In that sense, a person shouldn’t misconduct himself when there is a possibility of a safe haven at the end of each tunnel. Indeed, life has a better way of rewarding people who are patient and resilient. I have high respect for people who understand the different sides of life – commencement and conclusion.

Patient people find it easier to apologize when they are wrong. They believe in mutual understanding, and interpersonal relationship. There are some people who will constantly defend their wrongs, the very moment they are prompted. The three-letter word, I AM SORRY is difficult for them to say. They would rather choose to prove their infallibility in a conversation even when their ruthless conducts are clearly exposed to them. 

Friend, the next time you wrong someone, be humble enough to say, I am sorry, instead of burying your head in the sand. That behaviour is the lifestyle of the ostrich. In a flight mode, it runs to bury its head in the sand, thinking that this act conceals the entire body from its predator. What is the point? Be humble enough to accept your mistakes and failings, and gently apologize in order to have your peace of mind. Learn to be guided by the power of patience in all your endeavours. 

From a distance, I have seen people who should have waited for their heart’s desires to be fulfilled but couldn’t do so, and rather gave in to immediate wrong choices which despondently, landed them in penitentiary or in jail. If we choose to wait a little bit, we will probably save a failing marriage, a business contract, a bond at the workplace or improve upon our personal lives in one way or the other. There are glaring examples that point to the fact that if we had waited a little bit longer, we would have avoided a major ill-fated incident in our pursuit.

To build a healthy nation, people must learn to do their fact-checking exercises before commenting on any public discourse. Patient people are not in a haste to pass any comment to create confusion among persons. We live in a generation of speed. We are quick to speak without thinking about the consequences of our actions. We are quick enough to send damaging text messages to people on their phones until we finally get to know that our actions were too preposterous, unreasonable, or outrightly silly. In the political sphere for example, people are constantly looking for faults with others in order to run them down. 

Political opponents sit with syndicates whose main agenda is to overturn good intentions and construe them into their limited understanding. As a matter of fact, in our larger society, so far as some people dislike or hate you, every information about you does not need any due precision or facts, but a hasty formulation of thoughts to discredit a genuine action. Remember that in this life, some people come our way as angels to guide us to our ‘destiny factory’ – BLESSING. It takes a discerning heart to spot such people and respectfully, and gently, honour them.

A prejudiced or bigoted mindset is a disaster for any society that wants to hinge on unity of purpose.  Until we understand why we are here, a thoughtful insignia or sign may be twisted to meet an off-beam itinerary. In dealing with people from different backgrounds with dissimilar persuasions, I have learnt to have a larger heart towards all manner of persons, regardless of creed, gender, or age. I am of the opinion that we must all learn to accept all kinds of people, no matter their state of affairs, and help them redefine their flawed personalities.  

People come in different multiplicities, and with altered complexities. Our guilty conscience makes us assume that some people hate us, even when it is rather our self-inflicted thought which has kept us in mental prison. Having a larger heart means, we don’t hurriedly judge good thoughts. It calls for restraints. Not every stroppy, unhelpful or bad-tempered message you receive on your phone, for instance, calls for a quick reaction. 

Emotionalism must be backed by logical conclusion, and manacles on matters of relevance. Patient and faithful people understand who they are, what they stand for, and what they bring to the fore. Many affiliations or interactions are twisted because of our inability to handle issues under the lens of broad-mindedness. If you discredit the worth of your colleague, friend, or a relation without any reliable substance, an emotional disparity is produced. 

In any scope of life, many who took their underlings for granted by virtue of their position(s) and undermined the latter’s value, eventually paid heavily for their negligence, especially, when their subordinates' true essence later emerged. Lies, uncontrolled anger, boastful talks, and self-importance which are all ‘branches’ of impatient persons’ ego, suffocate any organizational growth. Check the annals of history; easily-irritated people have punctuated their lives with tragedies and challenging hurdles.  

Indeed, 2024 can only be better, if we allow the life-force of patience and faithfulness to guide our actions, deeds and conducts. We cannot be perfect people. However, with wisdom, humility, patience, and faithful service to mankind, our good deeds will forever be etched in the minds of others, and thereby reinforce communal living. Let us ALL learn to be patient in our The writer is an Academic, Visiting Lecturer, Leadership Consultant and a Reverend Minister with the WordSprings City Church, Kumasi - Ghana.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU!

The writer is an Academic, Visiting Lecturer, Leadership Consultant and a Reverend Minister with the WordSprings City Church, Kumasi - Ghana.
Email: patrickowusu799@gmail.com