I Dare You To Be Patient with Yourself

It is often hard to be courageous enough to be patient with oneself especially when times are hard. It is more like looking at the mirror and telling the person you can see that you are doing fine and you deserve to be patient. We can be lenient when people make mistakes, by giving them a second chance, so why don't you do the same for yourself.

It gets consuming when we rate ourselves with high expectations but fail to give ourselves a second chance for when things do not go well. Why can you be patient with others when they make a mistake, but you are hard on yourself when you make one? Nothing is more disheartening when we beat ourselves up because of the mistakes we made. Being patient with oneself is more of a courageous tool that I feel many do not possess. Have you ever been so hard on yourself? You will come to understand that it is mentally draining especially when you go on and on about how things could have been different or done different.

I know what that is like because I have done that a lot especially after a loss during a tournament. Trust me when I say it is brutal. Nobody becomes more tired than you at that time and the worst part is you get sad as you look through what you could have done differently. The effect can be worse especially if it is a game where you were winning or had the chance to win. These things happen and it is all a process in getting better.

This is when the part of being patient with oneself is important. I choose to take it more as a daring statement to others who are out there, when I tell them take the courage to be patient with yourself. Try to understand that good things take time to come alive. A huge factor lies in the power of how consistent you can be at putting in the work to achieve what you want. Are you able to challenge yourself to accept the long time that comes with growth. We can only hope it does not take ages but we can't deny that it might require more time from us.

A major part of everything I have learned from the tournaments I have had in the past is it takes time to achieve the work and time to become good at playing chess. Sindarov started when he was around 4 or 5 and so did a lot of super grandmasters of today. A lot of time and resources have been devoted into getting to the spot they are in now and what that means is a lot heartbreaks must have been felt. It was so inspiring when I watched Sindarov's interview after his victory against Prag when he spoke about how he has lost a lot of games to Prag during their time, playing World juniors tournaments. It shows that these players have played a lot of times in the past and they have their shared loses. Success wasn't born overnight, rather it is a product of a long time of hard work.

Nobody can be harder on you like yourself which is why I chose to dare you today to be patient with yourself. Growth takes time and consistency.

_{I am @samostically, a chess player and writer. I love to share the experience I have gained from different battles over the 64 squares and the knowledgeable insights from books I have read. But most importantly, I am a Midnight Owl and I founded the community Midnight Letters.}

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