Patience to me is like discipline. It’s easy when you don’t need it.
For example, friends say to me that they admire how disciplined I am about exercising and eating healthy food. I don’t have to be discipled about ether of these. Exercise is part of my daily routine. I wake up, I exercise. Period. As for eating healthy food, I don’t buy anything that’s not healthy to eat. Ever.
Patience is the same way. I can be very patient when waiting for something to happen that I don’t care about.
For example, I’ve been waiting for 10 years to get 1GB Google Fiber Internet service. Every time it’s coming to my area, I move away right before it gets activated. I’d like it, but I’ve managed to do fine without it so I can be patient.
The same goes for most purchases, hobbies, traffic, etc. I can be patient because I don’t care that much about it.
My problem is that I am not patient when I want something now. Usually these situations involve other people, health situations (like illness, injury, pandemics) and major inconveniences (from Jury Duty to Dr’s appointments to Road Closures).
It makes me bonkers to have to be patient when I care about something. It’s worse when that waiting period is indefinite. It’s even worse than that when I’m not certain I will get what I want after the seemingly interminable wait.
I have these kind of situations that require patience all the time.
So how am I patient then?
I not.
I’m frustrated. I’m agitated. I’m impatient.
Instead of just fuming, I force myself to plow forward with other activity. My days are jam-packed from the moment I wake up I go to bed.
When I lay down at the end of the night, I usually pass out within a few minutes.
Eventually, whatever amount of time I am required to be patient passes by. It may be days, weeks, months or years. But eventually it passes.
In the meantime, I’ve accomplished a lot. Even better, I didn’t spend most of my energy and brain capacity obsessing about the wait.