Read anything about the greats: Michelangelo, Newton, Einstein, Curie, Jobs, and so many others and you’ll find out that the single most important quality that these men and women shared was patience. Benjamin Franklin put it best when he said: “Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for patience.”

Patience is difficult. Patience takes discipline. Patience takes self-knowledge. Patience takes the ability to wait without losing sight of what we set ourselves to do. Patience taxes and questions who we are. Patience might make us seem weak. And, although patience might innately be a stronger quality in some than others, true patience is learned through experience.

Time, the key component of patience is what we must master. Time is also a tricky concept, even asking whether or not our concept of time is real or is it only real the way we have come to know it? Patience is finely honed by time. The more time it takes us to do something the more we savor its accomplishment.

Today we rush through life. We have become impatient, we hate to wait, we must have our rewards now, and we are put out by any inconvenience that should disturb our sense of entitlement. Sad but true.

Think of patience as one of your daily intentions. Catch yourself when you are becoming impatient, how are you feeling? What is your impatience being fueled by? Is whatever making you impatient worth the journey there? Simple questions that can bring you back from the brink, that hole of despair caused by time.

Make patience your friend. That quirky friend who can sometimes be hard to handle but that makes your life so much richer.

Here’s to our new BFF: Patience.