How to Be More Patient

Book excerpt: In today's culture of instant gratification where credit cards let you pay with money you don't yet have, where articles have to be short or you'll never read them, and where you spend more time deleting emails than you actually have for reading those you need to, patience has become a dying art. We've been trained to want something five minutes ago, though yesterday would be even better. Impatience has become ingrained in us. Problem is, this isn't working to our benefit. From a health perspective, impatience contributes to stress, high blood pressure, and premature aging, among other deleterious impacts. From a psychological standpoint, impatience leads to unnecessary risks and poor decisions. From a social point of view, being impatient is a guaranteed way of losing friends and making enemies. It simply isn't an attractive trait. But believe it or not, you have far greater control over your own character than you might be aware of, or that you probably care to admit. Fortunately, your mood, attitude, and knee jerk reactions are not set in stone. The impatience that you've learned can actually be unlearned. Even better, your bad habits can be replaced by good ones. It takes a little patience, of course, but I'm going to help you along the way. Let's get started!