What is really patience? What is really self-discipline?

I'm sure we've all had a good amount of advice from people we look up to or have been mentored by, but at the end of the day do we really understand what we have learned? Have we applied our knowledge to everyday life?

I don't have the exact answer yet for the meaning of patience and self-discipline but as a definition it's quite simple.

I have a friend who I live with, and he's a web designer for Sony Computer Entertainment (the video game sector). He's valuable, efficient, and intelligent. One thing that amazes me is he's able to negotiate his work hours to no more that 6 hours a day. As a web designer for Sony, he's "the web guy" for MLB and quite good at it. What he does on his off times is work out and play video games. I used to be critical about his lifestyle, but understanding free will I think it's a great thing that he's doing what he wants to do. I've been able to see that he lives his life like a game, a game that's supposed to be fun. I used to question where his self discipline was but his actions and results make so much sense. When he's supposed to "work" it's a game to him. If we can look at self discipline and patience as a game, it will flip the script on how we look at these things.
So ask yourself, are you working or playing?