Patience as a Motivator
I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m historically not a very patient person. There are many times that I will get frustrated when things aren’t going my way. There are even more numerous times that I’ve complained in the past about times where I should’ve shown a little bit more patience. I’ve tried to work on being more patience and I’ve made some progress but what I’ve found is that I still have a lot of work to go in being a better person in that area. However, what I’ve tried to do after each time that I feel I was not patient is to re-evaluate the situation and see if I can learn a lesson and use that to motivate me into a better person. It has worked pretty well so far and hence why I write this blog post today.
What I’ve seen from life is that it is highly unpredictable. Not very many things will be handed to you on a silver platter. You will have arguments over the most trivial things. You might argue with some of your acquaintances. Sometimes it might even be your best friends. And even worse, sometimes it’ll be with your significant other. It’s tough when these situations happen because you’re so in the moment and you’re so full of emotion that it’s hard to hold in.
Think of situations like that in a different way. Think of what the consequences may be if you act rashly and without patience:
- You could hurt the other person’s feelings
- You could damage your credibility or reputation
- You could actually be wrong about a situation because you acted on emotion instead of reason. This could cause a lot of guilt.
- Other strangers or bystanders could witness the event and get a negative attitude towards you
- People may become less apt to work with you and get you what you need if you are impatient with them
When you think along those simple lines, you start to see how bad being impatient can be. It can damage relationships you have and it can ruin first impressions with others.
I’ve been guilty of this so many times as I’m sure you are as you read this. I think of even a situation tonight where I really should not have gotten so worked up over a situation. I had already been in a bad mood because I haven’t gotten much sleep this week and because of that I took an innocent request that somebody had and made it into a big deal and made that person feel really bad about themselves.
That’s not something that I strive to do. I want to be a better person and it starts by how I treat people no matter if I’m tired or fully rested. To me, there isn’t an excuse in being impatient.
So in saying that, how can we use patience or experiences like what I described earlier as motivators in our own lives? Think about the following things right after an event like that happens:
- What exactly happened? Recap the story in your head to make sure you processed everything right. By doing that you can see things that you did wrong that you can improve upon
- Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. How would you feel if someone went off on you like you just did? Would you feel ok about it? Would it make you feel bad?
- Ask other people or the person that you might have been impatient with what happened in their point of view. Often we see things a lot differently than the person we hurt.
- Think about other ways the situation could have gone down. How could you have redirected conversation? Could you have focused on something else instead of snapping? Would it have been better to walk away?
- Talk about possible solutions in the future for this situation with the person you offended. Let them know that you acknowledged that you did something wrong and you are working to do better the next time and understand them better
- Justify in your head how you’re going to be a better person in the future. How are you going to prevent situations like this from happening? Can you get other people to point out when you are being impatient?
By doing these simple exercises and going through some of these steps, you can be better aware of why you are impatient and what actions you are putting in place to be more patient. Remember, everyone just wants to be understood and sometimes it just takes longer to fully understand each other. Use patience as a motivator to be a better person. If you can get through the toughest situations without snapping at others, you will be looked at very positively by those around you!
