When it comes to that great virtue called patience, not many have it in abundance. Little wonder, decisions are hastily made by many with far-reaching damages. Little wonder, errors abound in people’s day to day activities. The workplace, homes, career and several people’s future is in clear jeopardy because of huge patience deficiency.

How do you react when traffic is not moving? Do you honk indiscriminately or you are tempted to keep changing line? What do you do when the ATM queue is not moving? Are you tempted to change your queue? It is interesting how the queue you leave seems to start moving the moment you join the other queue, then you are tempted to go back. It is all impatience! What do you do when your business isn’t producing projected return on investment? Do you lose your cool and dump the business?

Everything good takes time. Everything that takes time needs patience. Patience is the ability to accept or tolerate problems, hard times and people without becoming annoyed or anxious. It is also the ability to suppress annoyance and anger when confronted with delay.

Patience allows you time to think, completely assess the situation and make an informed decision. Patience puts you in a vantage position of understanding things for what they are. It is that deep breath you take just to get your thoughts back in order and put your feelings under control.
Nytimes.com reported a 2012 study in the journal of positive psychology which identified 3 distinct expressions of patience. They are:
1. Maintaining calmness when dealing with someone who is upset, angry or being a pest.
2. Enduring life hardships and a serious setback
3. Suppressing annoyance at delays.

The good news here is that your patience index can be modified for you to become a better person.
1. Identify situations that easily upset you.
Is it slow-moving traffic, slow internet, slow-talking partner or colleague? Whatever it is should be identified. That’s your patience modification starting point.

2. Having identified what makes you easily lose your cool, talk yourself into enduring the situation and withholding your reactions. Find a personal statement to always say to yourself e.g. I will hold on a little bit more, I still have some time in my hand, I don’t need to be in a hurry, etc. In talking yourself through the situation, take deep breaths, it helps to clear your mind.

3. Start your patience journey with the little things every day
One of the mistakes people make in behavioral modification attempt is to want to hit change as a one-off event. This approach almost always fails. To greatly be patient with people, you must start with your tolerance level with the little things that make up your day

4. Set realistic goals
The impacts of unrealistic goals are enormous. When you are unable to reach your goals, you generate negative emotions such as disappointment and failure. When you carry the bag of failure and disappointment around, it will be more than difficult to be patient with things and people around you.

5. Be robust with gratitude
Graciousness and gratitude are inseparable. Gratitude finds its root in graciousness which is immensely positive energy. With gratitude, you recognize the goodness in your life, in people around you and the environment. Gratitude and happiness are strongly related. The more grateful you are, the happier you become. The happier you become, the more positive energy you generate which leads to improved health increased tolerance and patience and increased capacity to deal with situations.

Source: http://loftycentre.com.ng/2020/03/03/the-science-of-patience-how-to-become-more-patient/