How To Be More Patient With Others And With Projects: 9 Tips
Many people feel that a lack of patience is one of the problems that most threaten them both at work and in personal relationships. Many of the goals we aspire to require us to wait, regardless of whether the efforts we have invested in them have consisted of regulating our emotions (positive or negative) or in trying to produce something.
Being patient doesn’t just mean being easier for other people to deal with; besides, allows us to be more capable of embarking on large projects whose fruit can greatly improve our quality of life.
Thus, taking into account that this psychological characteristic can be understood as a skill that helps us prosper, it is interesting to know several keys on how to have more patience, either with others or in relation to goals whose fruits are long in coming. This is precisely what we will talk about in this article.
Any psychological change, in most cases, requires time. When it comes to polishing skills to achieve a better adaptation to our environment, this is especially true, since wanting to change is not enough for this evolution for the better to occur. However, we can introduce small changes in our daily lives to train the mental processes most linked to the capacity that we are interested in enhancing.
If we want to start having more patience, we must add the effort related to gradually getting rid of impulsiveness to the time needed to change. Let’s see how to do it by optimizing the use of our energy and not letting this mission come to fruition. In this case, the recommendations are different depending on whether we want to be more patient in relation to the long-term goals that we set, or with others, in case someone is irritating to us.
When it comes to not giving in so much to impulsiveness in our personal relationships and having more patience in the face of frustrating situations with those around you, it is advisable to follow the advice that you will find in this section.
1. Stop judging
Labeling is a way of making us more likely to negatively value certain people for almost anything they do. When we do not perceive others by what they do but by what we believe they are, our prejudices can cause us to adopt hostile and irrational attitudes towards some. Therefore, to be more patient, one of the first steps is to differentiate between discomforts with an objective and reasonable basis, on the one hand, and those that are totally subjective and invented by oneself.
2. Take a distant perspective
Another of the most useful strategies to have more patience when resolving conflicts or participating in arguments is to see the situation from a perspective that is further removed from what is in front of you.
Many times, our ability to be more patient with others is much greater if we adopt a more neutral and distanced mentality from ourselves, as if we were an external observer to the conversation or interaction that is taking place. This way, it is easier not to give in to impulsiveness.
For example, if you are arguing with someone in a debate, do not take it as a fight of egos, but as an exhibition of ideas in which the important thing is not so much to convince the person in front of you, but to show many people how you are able to refute arguments and contribute your own in a solid way, even showing your agreement with certain ideas that arise in the conversation, so that through this exchange of opinions everyone is clear about how you think.
3. Learn to accept the defects of others
In practically no area of our lives is it necessary that we like each and every one of the people we interact with. Friendly or emotional ties are exceptional not something that has to define what unites us with the rest of the individuals in the society in which we live.
Thus, learning to accept the fact that we will not always feel special sympathy for everyone and that in our eyes there will always be people with defects is a way of not becoming obsessed with the latter and, as a result, having more patience in dealing with them. people in general.
4. Don’t lose sight of your goal
The clearer you are about the specific objective that leads you to interact with a person in front of whom you feel frustration or anger, the more you will resist giving in to impulses to react in counterproductive ways. On the other hand, if you stop paying attention to that idea, it is easy for all your attention to be directed to the fact that there is a clash between your mental state and that of your interlocutor.
5. Look at what they do for you
On many occasions, even if we don’t notice it, those who get on our nerves or frustrate us with the way they behave also make small sacrifices for us. Taking them into account is good so as not to have an extremely biased view of their way of being. The result of this is that we will not pay so much attention to the small details that in other contexts exasperate us.
How to have more patience for the goals we set
The ability to have a lot of patience is also very beneficial to bring the projects we propose to fruition. The message of the fable of the gigarra and the ant is very important, because not everyone is able to continue persisting when all the efforts that will give us good compensation in the long term seem to be of no use during the first weeks or months.
So, to know how to be more patient in the projects we propose, follow these guidelines.
It is a way to make more visible the progression we make at the cost of investing time and effort in something. To the be more aware of our progress It costs less to be patient. For example, if you are following a training plan or going to the gym, it is good to focus on making concrete changes in a sequential manner, and not simply on “being very fit.”
2. Create a task sequence
Once you have divided your goals into other smaller goals, it is important that you order them so that they form a very clear sequence of actions, without there being moments that lead you to doubt what you should do next. In this way, even if one of these tasks frustrates you or is very difficult for you, the fact of knowing that you will soon achieve that small objective and you will be able to move on to the next will act as an element of self-motivation and you’ll be less likely to give up.
3. Strengthen your self-esteem
The fruits of tasks and projects that require patience not only bring the objective reward of money, the product created or fame, but also reinforce our self-esteem. Take these advances into account when valuing ourselves It is a way to make it easier for us to continue persisting.
4. Don’t make decisions in the heat
This advice is key, because when a very intense emotion invades us, it is very easy to lose control, throw in the towel and fall into impulsiveness. Therefore, when you notice that you have become too emotionally involved in something circumstantially, it is better to walk away, give yourself some time to calm down, and return to the place where we are required with a clear mind and relaxed muscles. For the latter, you can resort to relaxation techniques.
