“Our patience will achieve more than our force.” – Edmund Burke
Patience is hard for me. I struggle with it every day. I move fast and I have high expectations. And I typically assume that everyone should play at my level.
And when this doesn’t happen I get frustrated and easily annoyed.
I am constantly reminding myself that everyone does not, and cannot, play at my level.
You know this scenario … You’re in a rush. The sales person is moving slow as hell. You’re ready to kill. The problem is, the only person you’re torturing is yourself! Your nerves are ripping into pieces, your stress is rising and your heart is racing with thoughts of all the tragedies that will take place from you running late.
This emotional “cray-cray” is useless.
And there is only one antidote. Patience.
Yep, that’s right, good old fashioned boring patience. And guess what, I’ve come to appreciate patience WAY more than it’s evil step sisters “drama, impulse and intensity.”
But it takes work.
Here are 5 ways to help you be a more patient person:
- Patience is a skill – Patience is something that is developed with practice. So work on it. Every day. It’s like working your muscles or flossing your teeth. The more you do it the better you get and the faster you see results.
- Find a distraction – If your in traffic, a long check out line or find yourself at Dairy Queen around 3pm when the school across the street let’s out. Breathe. And find a distraction. Jump on Facebook, start reading a book, check out photos on Instagram, play around on Pinterest. Do something … anything to get your mind off of what is wanting to make you snap. This will quickly help you regain focus.
- Look for triggers – Figuring out what your triggers are helps you because it forces you to take a good hard look at your behaviors and figure out why you become impatient. This knowledge will help you put plans in place to avoid going “cray-cray”.
- Expect the unexpected – You can’t control people, places or things. Life happens. Things happen. Yes, you have plans. Your running late, but things don’t always work out. Accept the twist and turns in life and keep your expectations realistic.
- Give yourself a break – Stop holding yourself and the world around you to these unattainable standards. Sure, we’d all love it if babies didn’t cry, things didn’t break, computers didn’t crash and people didn’t make mistakes. But that’s never going to happen. So stop obsessing and just relax. Life happens. Let it.
What are some things you do to work on your patience?
Be well. Be Inspired!
Judi
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