Patience. Not my middle name. If it were my middle name, I would have been named incorrectly. Although I was not given the benefit of patience for myself by birth, I think I have learned a good deal about the process of developing patience as an adult. In my own efforts to recover from Procrastination and in my professional work helping others to heal from their Procrastination and anxiety, I have realized how essential it is to have patience. Patience provides us the ability to consider our own difficulties and to move beyond our feelings of discouragement. When we lack patience, a few things can happen:
- we get stressed out before we realize what our options are
- we lose time berating ourselves and those around us for our mistakes
- we forget we cannot be perfect
- we hamper our own efforts to fix what's wrong
- we feel unsteady in our choices and movements
We can try to do our best to smooth out our movements so we are consistent and in flow. However, we must also try to maintain patience towards ourselves and what happens in our lives. No matter how good we get at getting things done, there will be moments, perhaps even daily, that take us off-track. Do your best to look at these brief moments as part of your progress rather than a signal to you that you should stop trying.
Have you been impatient with yourself lately? Can you find ways to slow down and allow room for yourself to feel your feelings before moving forward again?
