Gotta have impatience

Patience, like time, is a commodity in great demand.  Impatience is experiencing an epidemic.   Many people make much ado about 'little things,' about where they're not, and don't take advantage of what's right in front of them. If this sounds familiar, you'd benefit from reviewing why you're impatient. Why not rethink how you could make more effective use of your time? 

If you drive a car, you've heard a horn blowing behind you when you're in no position to go anywhere. How does this help the honker? What about the person who accelerates past you only to stop at the red light just ahead? And, then, the driver does the same thing to be stopped at the next intersection.  These drivers don't necessarily feel better when they vent steam. They only annoy you if you let them, but they still get nowhere fast. Which driver sounds like you?

If you go into a shop, and nobody serves you, and you wish to get going somewhere else, how does that make you feel to be ignored? Perhaps you feel the world should revolve around you when it doesn't. People aren't often mind-readers. Is that fair? Could you invite this treatment?  Wherever you work, are you more attentive to the clock and the prospect of leaving than dealing with taks at hand? Consider the kinds of pleasures and useful learning you're missing.

If your boss tells you to stop what you're doing and to perform another task when it doesn't really need to be done right away, this may stress you out. Your boss may be impatient and may also wish to take advantage of the authority he or she has over you.  Or, you may exaggerate how difficult the situation really is. Why might you be impatient to do what you think is a priority?

What is about wishing that certain experiences were already over so we can get on with something else? Yet, we don't take the time to enjoy what happens as it does.  Kids often dress as grown ups and wish they had the privileges that adults have, like staying up late.  Then as adults, we wish to go to be earlier or relive parts of our childhood, but we are taught to be too serious.

What about traits of your partner or close friends who drive you bonkers? They may be impatient for you to get yourself together so they can get on with things. Or, you may be impatient for someone to get ready when that person often makes you late. How could you react differently?

Impatience is a quality that creeps up when we least expect it. Why sputter explatives? Does this make us feel better or have we been conditioned to think we have to react in a particular way?  Consider what life would be like if you learned to enjoy being stuck in traffic, if you saw being forced to postpone some of your own plans as a blessing, if you could see impatience as a teacher meant to temper your passions, if you could see advantages you didn't initially recognize. As you decide you wish to better understand and improve yourself, you love whatever happens. 

Comments

[Jannie Funster]

I really like the idea of being in the moment at your work, instead of wishing the day were over. And as you mention, the pleasure and learning we can enjoy. What can we take pleasure in? Caught up in the dance of the motions, of say, cleaning the house. Or sweeping the floor at work. To actually move the muscles at work in itself gives a great feeling that all is well. That's why gardening is so rejeuvenating. Raking or sweeping leaves is poetry.

I could be more aware of the expletives I use. I read once when we utter these words it's because our soul is saying a little prayer. Have you heard that? You are right, tho. Why head into expletive land at all? That shows we are letting ourselves be impatient. When we still the mind and realize there is never anything negative happening, we can flow in every moment.

xoxo

[Liara Covert]

Jannie, see what happens if you choose vegetable or other food terms to substitute where you are conditioned to use explatives. You find yourself chuckling over the humour in it. As you begin to feel everything is always going well, then resistence fades and the urge to use explatives no longer arises. Shift focus to the observer of events and watch what happens.