Patience is hard for most.
In our culture today, patience — the capacity to handle or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting upset or angry — is a rare gem. We want things even before we ask for them. For the majority of us, we’ve become great at interrupting, putting things on credit, and making hasty and eventually faulty decisions out of our lack of patience.
The decisions we make in an impatient storm can cause trouble, whether through tarnished relationships or wasted time and resources. Unlike something you are born with, patience is a learned skill that requires consistent reflection and mindfulness. This is not to say you will be perfect all the time, but if this skill is practiced the majority of the time, focused success is on the horizon.
Few people understand the impact of impatience. Think about this: Those who lack patience come off as arrogant, impulsive and insensitive. As described before, they have trouble making sound, fruitful decisions due to their quick interruptions and know-it-all mentalities. Because of these characteristics, it’s sometimes hard to build relationships with impatient people. On the other hand, the more patient people are, the more positively viewed they will be, both within and outside of their circles.
As we’re out in the wild, so to speak, how do we analyze signs of impatience within ourselves? Perhaps that unintended snap, anxiousness, and shallow breathing are great initial signs to catch when you’re about to erupt into an impatient frenzy.
How does someone start practicing the level of patience that most can only dream of? Perception plays a large part in your patience journey. I’ve done some exploration about how you might be able to start building the ever-important skill of patience. Here are a few examples you can try when working on your journey to patience.
Look Through a Clearer Lens 
Sometimes, we’re seeing out of a skewed point of view, which allows us to get annoyed quickly without fully assessing the matter at hand. Impatience, for the most part, starts with some level of discomfort. The discomfort can be right in your face or very silent to the point where it’s unrealized. The higher the level of discomfort is, the larger the amount of frustration when you’re searching for a way to make the discomfort go away — quickly. Do yourself a great favor by reframing your circumstances. Be thankful wherever you are, and you’ll probably forget what you were hasty about in the first place.
Manage Your “Why”
There is always something triggering our impatience on a daily basis. It’s probably unrelated to whatever you’re rushing yourself or someone else to do on your behalf. Triggers often come in the form of words, phrases, actions, locations or specific situations. If you’ve never taken the time to understand what your triggers are, it’s a great exercise to make a list in order to address the intention to make meaningful changes little by little. Journaling is also a huge assist; take the time to document why you were frustrated and what triggered it while the moment is still fresh in your mind and body. Spending the time to identify triggers forces you to truly examine your actions as well as why you might react in a rash manner. Having this knowledge will equip you with an arsenal of tools to use in your strategy to practice better patience.
Better Mental Health
Patience and coping tend to go hand in hand. It’s quite possible that the worse your coping skills are, the more you’ll lack patience. Patient people suffer from fewer depressive episodes and feelings of guilt from their actions. Patient people are also more hopeful and satisfied with their lives, generally speaking. Additionally, a positive catalyst to a positive mental attitude is the ability to achieve your goals. Achievement is a long, arduous road. We’re all stuck on seeing results quickly in our personal, professional or business lives.
A 2012 University of California, Berkeley study found that patient people exerted more energy into their goals and saw more satisfying results overall. Through the progression of their goals, they were more satisfied and grateful in comparison to those who tried to take shortcuts and practice impatience in trying the achieve their goals. Patience manifests in overall contentment on any achievement journey.
There is no doubt that we will encounter trying triggers while going through life; it’s life! Don’t despair; there will be distractions from your patience practice, but try your best to persevere. It will not only make life more pleasant now, but it might also create a path for a more successful and enjoyable future.
NADIA ALCIDE is the chief problem solver at Simply Sociable LLC, a virtual business management firm. Over the years, Nadia and Simply Sociable have helped small businesses and entrepreneurs scale by managing their back-end systems, thus allowing them to focus on growth-related activities. Her team takes pride in making admin simple.