The most important virtue needed for self-transformation is patience. Without patience you will lose hope in the transformation process. As you travel the path you sometimes run into rough spots where the foot slips and you find yourself suddenly not on the path, and there are wrong thoughts or words or behaviour.
Patience makes you cool and calm. It makes the journey possible. The process of self-realization is not a ten yard dash. It is the 150 mile run.
You have to learn to pace yourself. Patience teaches you to pace yourself. You can’t take help from God until there is patience of this kind. Where there is patience, there is peace. Where there is peace, there is love. This is a whole new experience of what it means to be human.
Excerpts from the book Companion of God by Dadi Janki, Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University