I spend a lot of time in airports and on planes. These last few months of travel have been filled with weather delays, cancelled flights, mechanical and medical emergencies. Oh the glamorous life of travel – haha!
All of these delays and cancellations has really required me to stretch myself in the area of being patient. I will be honest, it’s not easy and I struggle with being a patient person. Can any of you relate?
My observations have led me to believe there are two camps when dealing with situations that require us to be patient…
Camp 1 These are people who are calm, understanding, compassionate, and persevering.
Camp 2 These are people who are frantic, judgmental, complain and are impulsive
We have all heard the sayings, “Patience is a virtue,” “Good things come to those who wait,” or just the simple phrase of “be patient”. Easier said than done, right? It doesn’t help that we live in a frenetic world that keeps timing to a hectic pace fueled by modern conveniences, quick fixes and expectations to change over night.
I found some research by Sara Schnitker that said, we need to practice patients in three areas of our lives.
- Patience with others
- Patience with life’s hardships
- Patience with ourselves and our daily routines
I have asked myself some tough questions and I am encouraging you do the same. When confronted with a challenging situation do you live in Camp 1 or Camp 2? If you answered Camp 2, you are being super honest and that is a great place to start. It is our awareness that ultimately can bring about change. So much of life is out of our control but we can control how we react to it.
I am reminded of a passage from the Bible – Ephesians 4:2
God asks us to “conduct yourselves with humility, gentleness and patience. Accept each other with love.” Accepting and loving are always great guidelines.
Here are a few things I always keep on hand when traveling so that I have what I need to remain calm, understanding, compassionate and ultimately persevere through the situation.
- a full water bottle
- several high protein snacks
- a book ( I am a huge fan of my kindle )
- a great play list
- charged headphones
- a portable phone charger
I then incorporate prayer, kindness and understanding to those relaying the messaging, and a light hearted approach to those sitting around me. Always wanting to be part of the solution, not the problem. Do I always hit the mark, no, However; I do feel a sense of improvement as I navigate challenging travel and I believe this is spilling over into the personal areas of my life too.
I hope this helps just knowing that many of us want to be more patient and there are things we can do and practice to make our responses to life’s quirks and mishaps a bit more doable. Life is always about the journey.