The Value of Patience | brokeGIRLrich
This is a largely theoretical post, because I have none.
I mean, maybe not none, but it’s a real problem.
It’s a problem when I rush people because they don’t make decisions or understand things as fast as I do.
Which is funny, cause there are definitely times I’m indecisive and don’t understand things, and I expect a world of patience from others in those moments.
It’s a problem when I’m buying something and I want it now, so I get dinged with extra shipping charges or I just buy it off the first website without thinking the purchase through.
For example, I’ve lately been on a reading kick, and the main theme of the kick has been career-centered, management style books like Lean In or Grit or any number of books I’ve heard about in the last few years that I thought I wanted to read but never got around to it.
The funny thing is, books are expensive, but also, books are really cheap.
If I go on Amazon, which is my default I’m-not-thinking-this-through-right-now site (unless I’m looking for candles, then it’s Etsy all the way), books are $10, $15, $20+ dollars. They’re brand spanking new and smell like a new book.
Thanks to Prime (which I feel is deceptively useless, is this only me?) they also arrive fairly quickly.
With a little patience, I can find copies of like 99% of books, other than brand new releases, for a buck or two on eBay, and even brand new releases are resold at like 50% of their cost in stores or on Amazon.
For instance, I recently bought the newest Stephen King off of Amazon for about $15. For that same amount of money, I also bought 4 other books on eBay.
AND this isn’t even the cheapest way to get books – that winner is clearly your local library, but again, I’m not patient enough to wait on a list for something like the newest Stephen King, or for an interlibrary loan when my tiny local library doesn’t have a different book I want.
But as you can see, if I did have some patience, I could really read whatever I wanted for free.
Clothes are another spot I lose patience about – but it’s only for clothes I need. For the eighth shirt in a similar color/cut/style that I already own, I can carefully ponder for ages, scour the internet for deals and purchase at what I’d confidently call the best price.
Other than the fact I didn’t really need it.
One of my best friends can attest to the fact that I have zero patience for shopping for clothes I need. You know, when you’ve put on just a little too much weight, so you need one new pair of jeans because of your stupid donut loving self my stupid donut loving self, so I anger buy the first pair of jeans I find in the store.
Or work clothes, those are the worst. Especially black sneakers. Do you know how hard it is to find black sneakers with black soles? Ugh. And then to find a pair comfortable enough to be on your feet 12+ hours in. I’m sure there’s some added mourning of the loss of the pair that fell apart, but I have zero patience for this task and I usually buy the first pair I find, and they wind up hurting a little and next thing I know I’ve got 4 pairs of black sneakers, I only like one and I’ve wasted a ton of money instead of slowly taking my time buying these stupid shoes.
On the plus side, I can think of one time the value of patience paid off and you’re reading it right now. Everything I’ve read about blogging talks about how it takes years to turn it into a stream of income, which is totally correct. I have also found that to be the case.
That being said, plodding along week after week for years has resulted in making enough money from this blog to buy a halfway decent car (which isn’t what I did with the money, trusty old Mona, I’ll drive her till she falls apart).
Most of the really good things in my life seem to involve some amount of patience – including cheap books and decent black sneakers.
