The Price We Pay for Impatience: Why Patience Is a Virtue

In this world of constant motion forward, hasty decisions, and instant gratification, it can seem that patience is available in low measures in everyone’s psyche. But being impatient isn’t such a good character trait to have.

It can harm you in many ways, not only in future projects and endeavors but also in the current moment.

Think about the last time you were impatient while sitting in traffic. Let’s say you got impatient and weren’t watching the road properly. This led you to hit the driver in front of you, resulting in a costly car accident.

Then, you were forced to wait around twiddling your thumbs while waiting for emergency services to show up.

Does this scenario feel familiar? It’s like the universe is showing you the cost of being impatient!

The article below shares many reasons for how impatience can cost you money, time, and sanity. We discuss why you must build patience as a skill—starting right now.

Are you ready to get patient? Then, read on!

Impatience Can Wreak Your Health

The worst thing about impatience is that it causes you to feel angry or frustrated. This can raise your blood pressure and stress levels.

Let’s say you eat healthily and exercise daily but then spend the rest of your day impatiently. You are negating all the good you do for your body in seconds.

Even a minute of anger is terrible for your body. It increases the amount of adrenaline in your body, which, in turn, increases your heart rate and blood pressure. This makes blood more likely to clot—a dangerous scenario.

Anything you can do to keep yourself calm and serene is essential. This doesn’t mean you need to become some kind of saint or anything. That would be impossible; repressing anger or impatience is just as terrible for your body.

The point here is to realize that everything happens in good time. So getting impatient about external events often out of your control only harms you. It doesn’t change the timing of things.

For example, let’s say you’re about to board a plane for a vacation. You arrive at the check-in desk only to find your flight has been delayed by hours.

If you get impatient and angry with the check-in clerk because your flight is delayed, that won’t change the flight time. Instead, it will just cause the clerk to become annoyed with you, which could result in you missing out on some potential upgrades or other freebies.

You should be patient and deal with the clerk with kindness. The same goes for any other problematic situation. This approach boosts everyone’s moods and creates a harmonious day for you.

Impatience Can Damage Your Relationships

The people we love the most are usually the ones we get impatient with the most as well. It could be that we hold our loved ones to a higher standard or spend much more time with them than others.

But you must also treat your loved ones with a hefty dose of patience. Getting angry or impatient with them isn’t making anything go your way. It might ruin your relationship with the people you care about.

It could even result in your loved ones trusting you less because you get impatient with them whenever something difficult happens.

This is especially true with the younger children in your life. They don’t understand that things happen on a particular schedule and that if you are late for something because of them, then you could get into trouble.

All they understand is that you seem to get angry and impatient with them quite often. So they might conclude that you are an adult to be feared or avoided rather than loved.

Keep your impatience in check when dealing with people you care about if you wish to keep your relationships intact.

Impatience Can Be Financially Costly to You

Unfortunately, impatience always gives costly lessons to everyone who dares to trifle with it. You might have noticed yourself.

Whenever you get extraordinarily impatient and rush to do things, you make a mistake or break something valuable.

For example, you might be cleaning your car, but you are rushing through it because you have limited time.

Because of your impatience, you end up scratching your car, breaking a side window, or cracking the windshield because of your impatience. You have to pay to fix these issues, an additional expense you have the budget for.

If you remained patient and cleaned your car calmly, you wouldn’t have dealt with this damage and wouldn’t be paying out of pocket for it.

You will notice impatience particularly harms you when you are on the road driving to a destination. It’s always better to take your time, breathe, and drive slowly and carefully rather than rush to your objective.

When you drive impatiently, you make more mistakes, and you are more likely to end up in an accident or in a near accident, which is just as scary.

It’s better not to risk your or your loved one’s life this way. It doesn’t matter if you arrive a few minutes late at your destination. At least you will get there in one piece and in a better state of mind if you drive with patience and serenity.

Impatience Can Result in Poor Decision Making

A calm mind makes better decisions because it can take time to evaluate all the different eventualities and choose the right course of action.

Decision-making requires several parts of your brain to work together cohesively. Being impatient can result in emotionality that shuts down your executive function or makes it work less optimally.

You might have seen illustrations of this in your own life.

For example, you had to decide whether to drop your children off at home or grab your dry cleaning. It might seem like a silly decision, but if you are impatient and in a rush, you will take longer to make this simple decision or make the wrong choice.

Of course, it doesn’t matter much if you make a wrong decision in this example, but what if it’s a life-and-death situation? Then you will want to take your time, breathe, and make a decision that benefits you in the best manner possible without letting impatience hold you back.

Are you interested in a book recommendation that can help you understand how to build patience as a skill? Then, read the book “Can’t Wait” today; you will gain a lot of wisdom from it.

Impatience Can Take You Away From the Present Moment

Most of us are either constantly living in the past, thinking about regrets or mistakes, or in the future, thinking about what we want to do or wish to do with our lives.

This results in a life where you never enjoy the present moment. This lack of mindfulness can result in depression, unhappiness, disease, and many more ailments.

You don’t even need science to show this to you. When you are dissatisfied, frustrated, or impatient with the present moment, wanting to be somewhere else reduces your overall happiness levels.

It’s important to remember that everything is happening at the right time, and you don’t need to hurry anything. Not only is it impossible to make things happen at a different pace than they are already happening, but this futile effort is terrible for you in so many different ways.

Why not just accept the present moment as it is? There is no need to try and change it or get impatient or angry with it because you wish it were different.

This can result in a bounty of serenity, peace, and joy for you, which you can’t put a price on. Meditating for a few minutes daily can help you build your patience, so start this practice immediately.

Also, remembering in each moment to bring yourself back to the now is a great way to build mindfulness and remove impatience from your day.

Is Being Impatient Holding You Back?

In many ways, being impatient causes you to be less successful or liked. So it’s time you stopped this cycle of impatience, anger, and frustration.

As soon as you start building patience as a skill, you will notice how much better your quality of life will be. It will be a night and day difference, and you will never want to return to your old self again.

Don’t forget to check out related articles on our website so you can keep gaining valuable insight.