I have no problem admitting that I struggle with patience. I’m quite well aware of the benefits of being patient. I’d like to be more patient….. but when I’m standing in a 5 person long cashier line at the supermarket or waiting to go through a slow security screen at the airport, it’s best not to speak to me. I will be cursing the inefficiencies of these operations in my head, meticulously identifying every process which could be improved and sped up. I will also be thinking about how shit my day has become and how the heavens must be against me to bestow such a delay in my life. And that’s without PMS!
You see, patience is one of the life lessons I need to learn. I will probably still be working on it in twenty years’ time. I’m ok with that. I fully accept that I have many things to learn in this life time. What I see as important is being able to love this part of myself even though it could do with some work.
So how do you love parts of yourself that you know aren’t perhaps your finest qualities? Well, I look at the positive sides of the less desirable traits. For example, my impatience has enabled me to do a vast number of things in my life at super speed. I always complete tasks at work much quicker than my co-workers. I have studied full time and worked full time without dropping the ball. And I manage to maintain all of my relationships with family, friends and partner.
Another way to love something about yourself that you would otherwise try to supress is to laugh about it. I can now have a joke with the people I work with when they pay me out for wanting meetings to be over and done with so quickly. I can even smile at myself when I’m getting furious waiting in a queue these days.
Being patient while being behind stuck behind slow walkers in shopping centres still requires some work…….
Do you have any life long lessons that you are working on?