UNITED STATES—I am learning something about life and myself as I get older. I have to have a bit more patience. When I was younger I think I had more patience than what I currently have and I am trying everything in my power to get back to that place. Why? Not having patience can get the best of your emotions. You react without thinking and guess what America: that is not a good thing.

So you might be asking what you can do to regain patience in life 1) Realize a delay in something is NOT the end of the world. We tend to react so quickly when something doesn’t go our way. When you do such things it causes more problems than what you expect. Your reaction to something that you cannot control can actually lead to more stress. Yes, America that is the key word ‘stress.’ It is part of our life, something we don’t need, but how we respond to negative stimuli leads to further issues.

Don’t react in a negative manner, take a deep breathe, collect your thoughts and navigate the situation from there. Not many of us are willing to do that, and as a result it gets the best of us time and time again and not in the best way people. 2) You cannot control how other people react to certain situations. We tend to believe we can dictate other people’s emotions, but the reality of the situation is we cannot. You cannot tell someone how to feel or how to respond to a certain situation. This is so common while driving. Someone cuts you off, stops abruptly, runs a red light, takes a parking space, refuses to allow you to merge, the list goes on and on.

For most of us, we react with anger and rightfully so in most situations because a car can be considered a weapon if not used correctly and it can result in a person’s death if a crash transpires. In addition, when you combat bad behavior with more bad behavior it only ignites to a fireball that can spiral very quickly. Again take a deep breath and reflect on rather it is worth getting into a heated argument or a possible violent situation because someone acted like an idiot.

I think the biggest issue so many Americans have when it comes to having more patience is the fact that our time becomes vital. 3) Prepare in advance for delays. Rather it is the doctor’s office, heading to work, at the mall, at the grocery store, the pharmacy, delays are part of life. We live in this false reality where we think what we WANT we must have when we WANT it. That is not the real world people, places like Amazon, the internet and the evolution of technology have forced us to think if we want it we can have it without delay and that is a problem.

Um, do you think 50 years ago that you got a package the same day you ordered it from a catalog? The answer is no, but in addition, there was no internet back that gave us instant gratification of what we were looking for. It is not like waiting for that newspaper to be delivered daily with what has transpired or waiting till next week to see what occurs on your favorite TV show. Even with the internet becoming more dominate in the late 90s and early 00s, if you ordered things online you still did not get that item(s) in record time. There was a waiting period and we don’t like to wait.

That is the problem with Americans we think our time is more valuable than others and I’m here to give you a dose of reality: everyone’s time is precious so don’t think yours is more vital then someone else. You have no idea what that person waiting in line to you has to endure when he or she gets home. So have a little bit of compassion and also don’t react without thinking about what stress will come with that reaction. In life, we need to have more patience because that patience is the difference between adding stress to your life or prevent it from entering into your life.

Written By Jason Jones