People tell me I’m patient.
Not always. I’ve had to wait for the meat lovers pizza to come out at Cici’s. All with the pressure of other carnivores waiting in the wings. That’s a double whammy: Needing patience, and a plan to put pepperoni pizza in your pie hole before everyone else.
It began really when I started to coach soccer.
The kids were little. The challenge was big. When you coach 6-year-olds, you’re at a disadvantage. Instinctively, every dog, airplane or finger-picking opportunity threatens to upstage you and steal your players’ attention.
You either grow patience, or you retire to the other sideline.
I was born for this. I came from an era when Amazon was still a forest. If I wanted the limited-edition Boba Fett action figure, I had to save 10 proof-of-purchase seals from other Star Wars figures. Then, I had to wait eight weeks for it to arrive in the mail.
Hell, you can get something from Wish in eight weeks these days.
How to build patience
Here are a few of my tips for building your own pile of patience. (With as many P words as I can produce.)
1. Pause before you speak
My friend Patrick in college taught me this one. (Really, his name was Patrick. I’m not just patronizing you.) He worked with me on the newspaper staff. Patrick practiced the pregnant pause better than perhaps anyone.
That pause produces enough time to bypass your first reaction and think things through. Patrick would audibly breathe in and out before passing on his next best thoughts.
It’s proof that could possibly spare you problems ahead.
2. Put some air in your lungs
To the point: Mindful breathing is paramount when it comes to building patience. Even for the proactive mind, concentrating on breathing in and out places our problems on the backburner. Practice visualization of your problems being pushed out and away.
I use the Simple Habit app for meditation. I also have a recording made from Jacksonville Beach of the waves and seabirds that puts me in a perfect place.
Five minutes of peace a day. Find it! It’ll grow.
3. Plan your approach
You need patience with yourself. Be open. Be fine where you are. It’s that simple, and also that complex. Find what triggers your impatience. For me, it’s when my team doesn’t try hard. Or I’m cooking, but I’m hungry. (It’s best to snack before cooking. And during.)
That’s where you have to be present with it. Aware of who you are and where you are. We get so fixed on a finite goal that nothing before it can be good enough for us.
Plenty of awareness in the present can practically purge impatience.
A to Z Challenge:
A is for Almost (and also At Last)
B is for Baggett (as in Laura, the actress, and #GirlsRock interview)
C is for Cursive, Cats, and Chinese Restaurants (Go Ask Daddy about them)
F is for Fieri, Falling in Love, and Focus (Weekend Reads IV)
G is for #GoAskDaddy: An interview with realtor Kristen Foxx
I is for I Shot the Sheriff, Item Lifting and other Illegal Activity (Go Ask Daddy)
J is for Journalist, a #GirlsRock Interview with Esther Robards-Forbes
K is for Kickass Kindness (to go with #gratitudeandshit)
L is for Low Self-Esteem, Life Sucks, and Electric Lit (Weekend Reads V)
M is for Manifest your dreams? No thanks. (Here’s why.)
N is for a new path (and why you don’t need one)
O is for old people, other police dogs and one business day (Go Ask Daddy!)
Just a dad ... 
Patience is definitely not my strong suit. I’m very guilty of the want it now feeling, but I am learning to slow down and pause as you will. It’s getting better all the time. Something about becoming a parent teaches you a great deal about patience I guess!
I’m not a very patient person, either. I think I need to print out that Joyce Meyer quote and hang it somewhere where I can see it on a regular basis.
People do consider me patient. Sometimes I’m not so sure… I work with teens and they sure know how to push your buttons and test your patience. I’m pretty good at breathing in and out before figuring out how to handle things… but sometimes, we’ll, the top just blows off.
If others see it in you, that’s great. We’re far too harsh on ourselves, Susi. And yes, being patient doesn’t mean being perfect. The volcano can still erupt – it just doesn’t as often, and I think we learn lessons every tme it does.
Patience is something I need to work on for sure. I thank my lucky stars that my husband is a patient man. Lord knows I may test him more that I should. LOL. In highschool I coached the little kids. Like 5 and 6 year olds. They ALL chased the soccer ball around like lost ducklings. I had much more patience back then👌🏼 Have an amazing weekend!!
The irony is you need patience to foster patience, Kim. Having someone patient by your side can help! Probably you’ve helped him become more patient.
The little kids take patience, but I’ve discovered the high schoolers do, too. They keep telling me they want me to get mad at them and motivate them with angry intensity, but it’s just not me.
With the little kids, you were trying to foster a love for the game so that they’d be engaged in it as they got older. Many of these players in high school didn’t have that experience when they were young.
That Joyce Meyer quote is often thought of here. Excellent advice, i will practice my pregnant pause this week.
I felt like Joyce summed up what I was trying to say in one sentence! Be mindful of the pause … you will be amazed what can be said if you wait a moment to say it.
They say patience is a virtue. You must have some to start with 6 yr old girls and still coach today. I am impatient in some situations. Like getting behind a slow driver when I am in a hurry. And I don’t mean the ones actually driving the speed limit, I mean the ones driving UNDER the speed limit! But if everyone else is going 10 miles over, you better move or someone is going to run over you.. lol! More power to ya Eli!
Breathing is good… I forget sometimes. 😉
Sometimes, the 16-year-olds require more patience than the 6-year-olds!
I move over if I have to. I won’t speed up or slow down so that some impatient driver can do what he wants. I’m gonna be safe. If they don’t like it … they can leave earlier!
LOL! Well it’s probably me blowing past you! JK. I might go 5 over but that is about it. Too many speed traps around here. But if I am going the right speed or even a little over and someone rides my rearend…. I MIGHT get over at some point but I will slow WAY down first. People like that piss me off. No reason to be that stupid on in that big of a hurry!!
I used to spray windshield wiper fluid when people tailgated. But then I stopped.
Because I ran out of windshield wiper fluid.
That’s a good one…but only if you have enough windshield wiper fluid. Not like blinker fluid…that stuff is expensive! 😉
And Walmart is always out of it!
Right??? What’s up with that??
Right?? What’s up with that??