Developing Patience: Tips on Mastering the Art of Waiting

Patience, a challenge for most of us, is the ability to wait, tolerate delays, and take time without becoming frustrated or agitated.

It is controlling your emotions or impulses and proceeding calmly when faced with difficult or frustrating situations. 

The word patience derives from the Latin 'pati,' which means suffering, enduring, and bearing. 

Patience is difficult to attain and harder to achieve than ever before. In today's 'instant everything' world, technological advancements and readily available credit have allowed us to obtain, experience, and consume practically anything we want - almost immediately. 

Do we even need to be patient anymore?

If we want to reach our goals, have successful relationships, and achieve personal peace, the answer is a resounding yes!

Anything worthwhile and important cannot happen immediately. It takes time, dedication, and effort to achieve, so patience is a virtue even today. 

The Benefits of Developing Patience

1. Reduces stress levels and makes you a happier, healthier person. You don't get as angry, stressed, or overwhelmed when you learn and practice patience. You are more in control of your emotions and better positioned to deal with difficult situations with ease and poise. Being patient promotes longevity and makes you a happier, healthier person. 

2. Results in better decision-making. When you're patient, you take the time to assess the situation, see the big picture, and weigh any pros and cons. The chances of making a big mistake lessen because you avoid making it in haste. Taking the time to solve problems requires patience and deliberation. 

3. It helps develop understanding, empathy, and compassion. When you are patient, you are automatically more understanding and compassionate with others. Patient people take the time to process what they go through and can determine what it takes to overcome obstacles to be more understanding of others. This results in better, more fulfilling relationships with spouses, friends, children, and bosses. 

4. Helps you understand and appreciate the process of growth. As mentioned earlier, anything worthwhile takes time and effort to achieve. The old saying goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day." Planning, growth, evaluation, and measurement all take time, and taking time takes patience. 

Tips on How to Develop Patience 

 ⮚ Take a day where you make patience your goal for the entire day. Make a concerted effort to take your time and think about everything you do, be mindful, and live in the moment. 

Observe how you've made smarter decisions, got along better with others, and understood what happened. Learn to do it daily. Developing patience is much like physical exercise because it requires persistence and effort.

⮚ Slow down. If you tend to rush around and try to hurry things up, want things done immediately, and can't wait for things to take their natural course, STOP. 

Take several deep breaths before you act or make a move. For example, pause if you're in a long lineup at the grocery store or in heavy traffic and avoid getting worked up. Do some isometrics, listen to the radio, or enjoy the view. Getting impatient won't make things move faster, so why get worked up for nothing? 

⮚ Practice delaying gratification. When you want to reach for that dessert, second drink, or buy your tenth pair of red shoes, stop and think about it first. You don't need or want any of them that badly. You can save yourself some money or additional calories. 

⮚ Practice thinking before you speak. Sometimes, we blurt out the first thought that comes into our heads without considering the consequences. We can avoid hurting or offending others if we're patient, pause, and review what we want to say. 

Situations for which patience is a must:

 ✔ Reaching most goals

 ✔ Losing weight

 ✔ Having a baby

 ✔ Bodybuilding

 ✔ Becoming a professional career person, such as 

  doctor, lawyer, engineer

 ✔ Becoming a top athlete

 ✔ Becoming a virtuoso in any musical field

 ✔ The healing of any wounds or illnesses

 ✔ Getting over loss or tragedy

Patience is a valuable character trait to develop. It may appear passive, but it is an active, purposeful, and necessary form of self-discipline.

Without patience, many of our actions would be counter-productive, and ultimately, much time and energy would be wasted spinning our wheels. Indeed, patience is a time-tested virtue.