Building the Foundations of Patience

Long gone are the days where people knew the value of waiting for things. Be it waiting for an outcome or commencing a commitment or task, where previous letters would take months to reach. We now await a reply for only minutes.

If our emails and instant messages are not responded to within a fictitious time frame of minutes, we start to think of the situation in a worst-case scenario. These are just the trivial aspects, given the lifestyle we are now going through has boosted impatience above all.

The true damage impatience has cast upon is our productivity. We all seem in a rush and often cannot even rationalize our need to speed past things. What can be done in 2 hours? We want it done within 30 minutes. Some may view this as efficient; I view it as losing the ability to understand what you are doing.

When don’t you understand what you are doing and why, how can you expect it to contribute to you somehow? And I am not even talking about personal growth (you can only grow when you can comprehend your actions). I am referring to being conscious of your actions.

Impatience has led us to be half-unconscious most of the time. We are working like programmed robots. So what do you think happens when you live robotically? You lose the essence of life you need as humans.

Unfortunately, we no longer want to wait, leading to patience becoming an antiquated concept for few situations.

As humans, the essence of life is understanding our actions, our reasons, and our motives, which brings us joy and sadness. When we work on a set routine as if it’s a program, we cannot understand anything we do, let alone track our progress. Consequently, we feel we haven’t achieved anything when in fact, we are making progress daily.

Now reflect on this – Why are you doing your tasks/obligations/commitment’s when you think you haven’t achieved anything? Does this not make your actions, input, efforts, and hard work seem redundant? It does, right? So why are you going along with things if they are redundant?

There is no answer to that because impatience is involved. Impatience leads a person to be restless and agitated when they do not find themselves getting results quickly. With getting restless, impatient people tend to lose focus of their actions while the urge to get to the result is heightened. This goes on until problems start to occur for the person involved.

These people are expecting results, forgetting that things will happen at their pace. From ordering something to executing a project or waiting for someone’s response, people forget that there are limits to be immediate results – they are dependent on uncontrollable factors.

These factors are all variables controlling the outcome of an ongoing task. From delivery involved to stakeholders debating on financing a project to an individual considering their options of committing to you in any way, you cannot control or manipulate someone else's answer. The end would result in the impatient person making a hasty decision, which harbors the possibility of damaging things.

That is where patience steps in. Patience is more than a virtue – It is damage control in our lives. Patience heals. It teaches us humility and the importance of waiting for things. Patience teaches us how to be calm, especially when things go wrong. Patience teaches us to be level-headed than to lose our temper, which can help us cope with situations better. With a calm head and patience, our ability to resolve situations will be better. We will be able to see through things clearly and come up with the best solution possible.

While a fast-paced life seems appealing, it has little to offer other than materialistic acquisitions. Even then, some people may lose their materialistic gains all because of a rush.

When people no longer remember the taste of patience, they are starved with greed. When you turn greedy, you can no longer look through things with logic. And when there is no logic in your actions, you are only making yourself vulnerable to different forms of loss. From lack of motivation to sadness to feeling as though you are incapable of achieving things – It is truly something how impatience can make us perceive life under a harrowing light.

Alternatively, with patience, we can remain calm. Even if something goes wrong, patience allows us to smile through everything and look for the silver lining instead. When our mind is not bubbling with concern or anxiety about things just happen, it retains clarity. And clarity is needed when we have to make decisions and perform everyday tasks.

Patience is the willingness to wait upon perhaps through something while being peaceful. If patience is a discipline, there must be some form of stress involved in the awaiting, even if it is merely indifference and not particularly discomfort.