Patience & Ego

This blog was supposed to allow me to vent out all of the frustrations and feelings I have towards the people whom we are working with here in Iran, specifically our client. Yet, I have always tried to control the outburst within. Yes, I admit, it is easier said than done. I may easily talk about conquering the ego, but when we are subjected to an attack, we are bound to retaliate. Luckily, I had it in control, at least for now. As one of our colleagues said, just relax, close your eyes and chant, OOOOOMMMMM.

You might think that something big happened today. It’s not that bad at all but, let us just say we had some kind of ‘tension’ with the client that we even contemplated on packing our bags and leaving the project behind, unfinished. LOL.

While we were leaving the site heading to the hotel, I was already formulating my blog in my head. Preparing to write some ‘interesting’ stuff about our client. But then again, that only feeds my ego which I am still trying to overcome.  Thus, I decided just to keep them for myself.

There is an interesting thing that made me realize today though. It is about patience.

Patience is only but a cap to trap the ego inside. Yet, when the ego bursts into anger, the cap simply breaks open.

In a chemical engineer’s point of view [please forgive this analogy because I can’t think of something else. :P], patience is a like a relief valve to a pressure vessel. When that vessel is over pressurized, the relief valve simply releases the pressure inside. Hence, being patient does not signify that you have already overcome your ego. Sooner or later, your patience will run out then your ego will surely erupt and perhaps, rip apart those who over ‘pressurized’ you. If you have been patient, it means that ego still resides in you, for an ego-free self does not require a cap to protect it from exploding.

Today, I realized that I was just being patient.

Namaste.