Patience is underrated, I’ve heard it gets better with age. I haven’t found that to be true yet. Instant gratification is such a part of our daily lives that patience and focus just doesn’t come easily. Technology allows us to shorten the learning curve. For example, if we want to know how to do something, we just do a search on YouTube, and there’s tons of videos showing us how to do almost anything, and the videos generally last less than 30 minutes reducing the time we need to focus. So we don’t have to read a book or take a course that required a lot more focus and took us weeks or even months. We live in an age now where even when you send a text, most of the time it’s not even a complete grammatical sentence. Instead we use abbreviations and acronyms to get to the point quicker.
Who has a lot of patience?
Think about the people you know. When I think about the people in my life who have a lot of patience, I notice they are less likely to display feelings of anxiety and they just seem pretty content in their rush through life. I attribute it to the fact that they take time to understand people and circumstances. They don’t jump to conclusions or have irrational and emotional outbursts.
I do try but I notice my patience gets tested when showing my parents how to do things. If my mom asks me a question about how to do something my first instinct is to just jump in and do it for her because I can get it done quickly rather than showing her and teaching her, which takes longer and of course, more patience.
Another indication of me not having enough patience is that sometimes I will finish other people’s sentences because I just want them to get to the point. I get frustrated because they think they have to editorialize their point. But that’s a flaw on my part because if they want to explain themselves, I should let them.
As I get older, I’m realizing how most important patience is. We’re all so different and we should take the time to understand, teach and help each other. The best way to do that is by showing each other patience. Even at your age now, you probably see the younger generation get frustrated and lose patience with you because you don’t do things like they do. You can’t zip around the web pages like they do or pickup an electronic device and seem to automatically know how to use it. You look at a child playing a video game and can’t figure out how a 7 year old can navigate a controller with 6 buttons and a joy stick, talking to 3 different people on a headset all the while battling a screen full of enemies and they look at you like, you’re a 30 year old antique!
Another reason to learn patience when we’re young, is so we have it as we get older. Think about the people you know that are elderly. Often they get frustrated because they can’t remember things, or bend down like they used to or even walk as quickly as they once could. As we get older, the things we can do now we won’t be able to do as quickly as we age. So it’s just as important to have patience and not get frustrated with ourselves as it is to have patience with others. So let’s all practice patience and teach our young so as we get older, we continue to understand and support each other.
Check out the article by Duo Founded, Seeing the Good https://duofounded.com/blog/seeing-the-good/
