Patience Is Not a Dirty Word

Sometimes I feel like my whole life has been a patience lesson. Yes, this is an incredibly dramatic statement, I know, and I’m definitely overstating the reality of the situation but sometimes that’s how I feel. Funny though, that I only really feel this way when I’m waiting for something that is out of my ‘control’ to happen.

In all actuality my life has been pretty easy, with a severe lack of drama, apart from a few episodes here or there. Yet when I find myself in a situation where the outcome is beyond my control or influence I find myself becoming very impatient.

I don’t think I’m alone here, I believe this to be a character flaw that afflicts many of us, but this truth makes it no less frustrating. In fact, it causes me to wonder, even more so, why we as a people are so impatient.

I think the best answer is a lack of trust. This may sound like a trite or cliche answer but it is the correct answer, and it certainly isn’t a simple one to fix. Trust has a deepness to it rarely found in other emotions.

So I’ve begun to ask myself, when I’m becoming impatient, “Who or what I am choosing not to trust?” It’s an interesting question to ask yourself because you have the option to deceive yourself if you want, to play the victim, or to search yourself honestly and deal with what you find.

I find it’s a lot easier, at first, to choose one of the first two options but over time those options lead to some serious issues. Self-deception and playing the victim can skew your outlook on life and severely affect your ability to trust.

If I ever want to learn patience I have to learn trust. It’s a basic life lesson that I haven’t quite figured out yet. I’d like to learn it soon though, would certainly make me less annoyed with myself.