Suppose you are running late for work on a Monday morning; you are stuck in traffic with a steady stream of messages coming in; & now you find yourself delayed in a long, tortoise-slow line at the grocery store. Situations like these are all too familiar in modern life & they test the utmost limits of our patience. Luckily, even in a modern world that’s as rushed & demanding as ours, you find some Ways to Stop Being Impatient.
We all want immediate results & want things without delay. We expect packages to be delivered on the same day. Those tendencies have led us to a life where we have very little patience. It may be high time we slow down & realize things need time to get done.
How to Stop Being Impatient
1. Take Deep Breaths
There are some reasons deep breathing is frequently recommended when you have stressful situations: it’s rooted in our survival instincts & made to keep us safe. Our brains sometimes go to the excessive rather quickly because we may assume a matter is urgent. Most of the time, it’s not a life-or-death situation, & one of the brain’s best pointers for that is oxygen.
The worry associated with impatience typically results in hyperventilation — quick, short breaths meant to kick off the brain’s fight-or-flight response. Taking a few seconds to take deep breaths, & with control can remind your body that you may feel uneasy, but you are possibly not in danger, & you can manage your impatience with an adequate response.
2. Stop Doing Unimportant Things
We all have things in our lives that rob time of vital things. One of the Ways to Stop Being Impatient is to stop doing those things. Take a few minutes & assess the tasks of your week. Look at your schedule between your bedtimes. Take out two or three things that you do that aren’t vital but consume a great deal of time. It’s time to deny & avoid those things that cause stress & impatience.
Suppose one of your colleagues has asked you to do some of their work. You have the full authority to decline the request as you have your work to do. Moreover, you are not getting paid to help them out. Telling them politely that you are already occupied with your work is an effective way to get rid of unnecessary stress & workload.
3. Identify the Impatience in Your Mind or Body
One of the Ways to Stop Being Impatient is to identify the impatience as soon as it starts to kick in. We often assume that impatience starts in the brain. But even though that’s where our emotions originate, they can be apparent anywhere.
Recognize the impatience in your body. Notice what happens when you are being impatient. Does your chest get very tight? Do your jaws & fists clench? You can give it particular attention by recognizing what’s happening in your body. This method can help you to recognize starting moments of impatience & take action before it arrives.
4. Declare Your Impatience
Speaking up about the reasons for your impatience can be rewarding & productive. Of course, you should practice delicacy & grace to make sure you do it without being a jerk. But voicing awareness is a vital step in managing impatience.
By accepting that you are feeling impatient, you are empowering yourself to identify your experience & communicate how it is affecting you & others. It can also offer you the chance to ask for help, for them the chance to provide help, or for each of you to choose how to react. The key here is perspective. By narrating your experience & feelings, you can help people around you to respond efficiently.
5. Offer Validation & Instruction
Impatience survives on disconnection. If you or your people don’t know what is going on or what to do in a particular situation, it’s a recipe for disaster. Validation, which is both a verbal & non-verbal cue that communicates understanding, is what aids connection. Help your people to understand what & why of your request after validating their feelings.
You may say things like, “I know you are upset because I can’t watch movie with you. I may use my laptop so that I can enjoy the movie while I answer some vital emails.” It’s vital to pair validating statements with validating actions. This helps to shape behavior & aids communication, which can alleviate similar situations over time & eventually diminish your impatience.
6. Focus on What You Can Control
When you feel like you are about to burst, try to put that feeling into words. If one of the words that come to mind is “need to” or “ought to,” you might be expecting too much from the situation or putting the blame on someone else.
Rather than testing your patience by defining situations with “need to” or “ought to,” try to build patience by thinking in terms of “could.” Think about the other possibilities you could explore to solve the problem or manage a challenge. You must focus on the things or people you can control rather than those you can’t.
7. Don’t React — Distract
The best way to deal with frustrating situations is to concentrate on something other than your bubbling irritation. Play some mental games using your surroundings. For example, if you are stuck in a massive traffic jam, rearrange the letters & numbers of the license plates or nearby cars to make funny words or phrases, or play the ‘I Spy’ game (these games also help to distract unruly kids).
If you’re stuck in a long line at the grocery store, discretely notice the food & grocery selections of the person in front of you. What’s going to be on their dinner menu? What could you cook with the same ingredient?
8. Be Aware of the Things Making You Impatient
Many people have numerous tasks in their minds; they jump from task to task without taking the time to finish one task first. We live interrupted lives when we try to multitask & it isn’t very pleasant when we feel we aren’t making progress.
It is better to be aware of our thoughts & the best way to identify this is to write down things that make you impatient. This will help you to slow down & concentrate on one task at a time & eliminate those things that stress you & make you impatient.
Impatience: It’s a Leader’s Biggest Downfall
Impatience wins over critical thinking & finest decision-making. Leaders who “get things done” may seem like crucial, assertive leaders, but if impatience engulfs them, they are likely to be aggressive rather than confident. Aggression produces resentment, disengagement, & miscommunication.
An indispensable factor of human nature, impatience is a controversial trait. Some may call it a virtue under particular circumstances. Others see it as a curse on wise people, causing them to do foolish & irrational things. Fortunately, there are many Ways to Stop Being Impatient.
From the viewpoint of leadership coaching & intelligent leadership, impatience is an attempt to force life to deliver answers instantly. People trying to squeeze answers out of life instead of letting them unfold at their own pace find that impatience is a particular weakness.
