[WI] 5 Easy Steps To Conquer The Art of Patience

Patience is a virtue – the ability to tolerate delay without frustration.

Nothing irritates some people more than having to wait – especially for someone else who is running behind schedule.

People who have patience know how to remain calm, which helps them to steer clear of impetuous action when faced with some kind of challenge.

Not having patience doesn’t have much to offer. Peak-hour traffic is impervious to your thoughts and emotions.

When you’re stuck, you may as well sit back, relax and enjoy yourself.

Nothing is worse than having to wait your turn when you have an appointment at the dentist’s office, but you might enjoy catching up on a few minutes of quality reading time – hence their magazines!

Patience is good for your health; it makes you happy, is good for relationships and helps you with your goals. On the other hand – impatience can be very costly.

Here are 5 Benefits of Patience:

Think of these important benefits if you can just be a bit more patient:

1. It is much easier to have a “happy-go-lucky” attitude when you remain patient. Impatient people experience negative feelings. Being patient trims down stress and anxiety. Difficult situations can be managed more easily when circumstances can be approached with patience.

• Have you ever benefitted from being patient?
• What are your negative feelings when you’re impatient? Are you stressed? Unhappy? Uncomfortable? Irritated?
• Of all the people you know, are the patient ones more or less happy than the impatient ones?

2. Patience makes for healthier people. The stress that impatient people suffer from is not only hard on the mind, but also on the body. People who are less stressed have less medical issues. Stress causes heart conditions, stomach ulcers, blood pressure problems and many other health issues that are complicated by stress. By just being patient you can potentially live longer and enjoy yourself more.
3. You can achieve larger goals. Big goals take time. Time calls for patience. Big goals are simply not possible without some measure of patience. Think back of how impatience has short-circuited you before…

4. You cannot control everything, but being patient makes for a smooth ride. Recovering from an illness, injury or even an operation cannot be sped up by your will or getting impatient about it. You can’t speed up a pregnancy. A broken leg takes a certain time to heal. Learning to cope with a personal loss or tragedy takes time. Losing weight can’t happen overnight.
5. Being patient allows you to make better decisions. Impatient people don’t take the time to think things through in order to make wise decisions. They are stressed out, and stressed people are impulsive. This is not always bad, but moves you closer to the edge. Patience gives you the time and space to mull over the situation a bit and make a wise decision.

Make a list of the times when being impatience has come at a price – a personal relationship, your job, money matters or your behaviour in certain situations.

Impatience causes poor decisions. Don’t forget those times that you made a mess by being impatient.

4 Easy Steps to Develop more Patience

Anything in life is possible – so is developing patience. Here are 4 easy steps to follow:

1. Set shorter goals. Try to spend the next hour being more patient. Don’t allow anything to bother you for the next hour. Next time increase it to two hours or as long as you are able to. Before you know it, you’ll be the most patient person you have ever known.
2. Take a deep breath and think before everything you say and do. When the urge to jump up and raid the refrigerator takes hold of you, force yourself to wait 10 or 15 minutes. Want to interrupt a conversation to make yourself heard? Wait your turn. Stuck in traffic? Slow down and practice patience at every opportunity. Your average day will give you more than enough opportunity!
3. Think back to when you were most impatient. Were you unable to control yourself as well as you’d like? Focus your attention on this. Aim for slow, steady progress. Don’t expect perfection or demand too much from yourself. Just like the tale of the tortoise and the hare, being slow and steady wins the race.
4. Look at yourself when you are impatient. Change your thoughts. Think positively. You can choose to think whatever you like, so think positively about something that encourages you to be patient.

Patience is a character trait that is worth the time and effort to cultivate. Lots of people confuse impatience with weakness.

But patience is an intelligent reaction to something that is beyond your control.

Impatience can be unhealthy, cause additional challenges, and make you miserable. Patience does the opposite. Which one do you prefer?