A person can learn what impatience is and ways to recognize it and to cope with their impatient tendencies. People who suffer from impatience are often considered to be arrogant, insensitive and overbearing. Impatience can cause a person to cut others off in mid-sentence and to make what appears to be judgmental and unknowledgeable decisions or statements. An impatient person can snap at others in response to questions or appeals for help. Many reasons can lead a person into an incident of impatience however, stress is considered to be the main cause of impatience. The higher degree of stress a person is experiencing, the greater the danger of being impatient.
People usually know when they are having difficulty with impatience. A few people suffer from impatience only when their hot spots of impatient tendencies have been pushed. These people will benefit from a better understanding of what their hot spots are. But the people that suffer from frequent and/or intense incidents of impatience will greatly benefit from more therapeutic counseling.
Learn to identify the causes of your impatient hot spots.
- What is your body language, facial expression or what phrases do you use most when you are having an impatient moment? Ask the people who know you best to tell you what these are.
- Log your reactions to certain situations in a journal. What led you to feeling impatient and what were you thinking and feeling during the incident?
- Measure the reactions of people to your way of relating to them. Do they hesitate to come to you? Are they afraid of you? Are they uncomfortable with you?
Take the necessary steps to help avoid an impatient incident.
- Remove yourself from the situation if possible. Counting to ten or saying the alphabet are good ways to distance yourself emotionally if you cannot remove yourself physically.
- Pay attention to the person you are speaking to. Actively listen. Restate what you have been told. Wait until the other person is finished speaking before you form your response.
- Force yourself to speak slowly and in a quieter voice than you might otherwise use in times of stress. You will look patient even if you don’t feel patient.
- Recognize the effort you have made and how good it felt to not overreact. Reward yourself for practicing patience.
Why controlling impatience matters
You will allow people to feel comfortable to seek your help if you learn to control your impatience. By not overreacting to stressful situations, you will find out that most incidents are not as bad as you thought they were in the beginning. You can help others to stay calm in high-pressure circumstances by controlling your impatience. You will improve your professional image.