Patience

Waiting Six Years to Finally Ride

Yesterday our daughter Ivy, after six long years, was adopted.  Please excuse the personal nature of this post.  These posts are to share leadership insights, not family updates.  Still, I have wanted to write about a leadership attribute desperately needed today, patience, and Ivy’s story seemed too relevant not to share.  We were blessed to get Ivy just after she was born. Her wonderful personality is as wild as her curly hair.  We have been grateful for each day we have had with her and tried not to obsess about the future.   Issues with the birth parents, New York’s court system, and COVID drew the process out incredibly long. Yesterday, the long-awaited day finally arrived. 

An HBR article entitled “Becoming a More Patient Leader” explains a technique called “thanking your way to patience.”  “Research in experimental psychology has found when people feel more grateful, they are better at delaying gratification and are more patient.” 

Horses have been a big part of our life since moving to Utah, but Ivy hasn’t been able to participate.  Foster parents live in constant fear of an accident and the child being taken away because of perceived neglect.  She had to delay her gratification of climbing on the back of our pony until yesterday, but wow, was it ever worth the wait.