Impatience - how to deal with it?

[ApplePersonFreak]

I hope I’m not the only one out there, but I do not know how to have patience, one of my flaws. I have some tests being ordered at a doctor’s office, and of course I would hear from them when it’s there and ready for me.. but I haven’t heard anything yet this week and I signed a consent form for it and turned it in last week. So far this week, I’ve been thinking about all of the ’what if’ scenarios that they forgot about me, etc.

Those patient folks out there, how do you deal with situations like where you have to just simply wait? I think now that we are all working at home and at home all the time in general, your mind can’t help but think about those things..

ETA: What my mind wants me to do is call and check, although I know I’m going to be told to wait a bit more and I’m pretty sure the office staff thinks I’m annoying since they know me by name now lol. *facepalm*

 

[heyyitssusan]

I’m pretty impatient too so I know what you mean. I guess it’s also the fear of the unknown

 

[Gregg2]

Sleep longer.

 

[MacPeasant123]

Note: I've been sick the last 4 days, and I'm way behind on stuff at work, so I likely won't be able to reply for a week or more.

I find myself to be someone whose patience has limits. These are the observations I've made about myself when I reach my limits and get angry at someone or about a situation:

1. my expectations: I expect some task to take only x amount of time, and anything beyond that is too long. Perhaps I need to lower my expectations

2. my judgment: going from things are taking "too long," that is a judgment I'm making. Perhaps I need to be less judgmental or harsh with my assessment

3. my habits: when I fractured my ankle bone, things that used to be easy became so much harder and more complicated. I wasn't used to it and it drove me crazy. Perhaps I need to adjust my habits, and I guess this is related to expectations too: "it shouldn't take this long or be this hard to do something"

4. my ego: when I lose my patience with someone, I think of things like, "this person is doing something in such a dumb way. My way to do it would be much better" - I guess this example is also related to judgment, but what I'm trying to say with this example is that I feel my way is superior than the other way another person is doing it. I get frustrated with them. Even if my way is much better, do I always need to get my way? That to me is an ego issue I need to work on. Also each of these issues begins with "my" so that's a strong sign it's my ego as well.

I'm sure there are other factors but this is what I can think of for now. Good luck on working on your issues with impatience

 

[Apple fanboy]

I hope I’m not the only one out there, but I do not know how to have patience, one of my flaws. I have some tests being ordered at a doctor’s office, and of course I would hear from them when it’s there and ready for me.. but I haven’t heard anything yet this week and I signed a consent form for it and turned it in last week. So far this week, I’ve been thinking about all of the ’what if’ scenarios that they forgot about me, etc.

Those patient folks out there, how do you deal with situations like where you have to just simply wait? I think now that we are all working at home and at home all the time in general, your mind can’t help but think about those things..

ETA: What my mind wants me to do is call and check, although I know I’m going to be told to wait a bit more and I’m pretty sure the office staff thinks I’m annoying since they know me by name now lol. *facepalm*

Depends on the situation. If it’s a colleague that isn’t pulling their weight I’ll tell them so. If it’s the receptionist at the doctors, she has no control over when they will have your results. So just be polite and the results will come in.

Also I’m still going into the office. I don’t really have time to be impatient as I’m doing around 11-13 hour days at the moment.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Those patient folks out there, how do you deal with situations like where you have to just simply wait?

You just wait.
Whatever is in the future, you can't control it. There is no need to worry: if it's something you can deal with, you'll deal with it. If it's something you can't deal with, then you just have no choice. Whatever happens, it will happen. However, you can learn to do something called futurorum malorum praemeditation (aka with the less cooler name "negative visualization") which I found a very effective tool.

A couple of resources:

How To Practice Stoic Negative Visualisation - What Is Stoicism?

One of the great things about Stoic spiritual exercises—including Stoic negative visualisation—is that they can generally be done by anyone, anywhere.

whatisstoicism.com

Negative visualization - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[compwiz1202]

For that exact situation, usually no news is good news. In general, I can be patient as long as the cause isn't either greed, incompetence or discourtesy. Like why do you have TWENTY FOUR registers with FOUR open while lines are five deep??? Obviously you have the resources to clear the lines but are greedy bastards. Or employees not knowing what they are doing, or customers using express with 50 things or asking hundreds of ?s when they can see a line behind them. Same with slow vehicles. You are supposed to pull off if you have a considerable line behind you on a one lane road.