For the last few weeks, I've been playing a game of cat and mouse with these mobile traffic lights that are relocated daily on the five or so miles of my road that is under major construction.
If I still lived in D.C., I'd just route around it and be on my merry way, but this is the only road to our house.
The construction will improve the road, it will be a good thing, and I refuse to be one of those obnoxious people who complain about everything (right as I typed that, I spilled my coffee all over the couch and myself).
But there were a few days when the pilot car just forgot about me after I'd been waiting for 30 minutes. The next day, they forgot about me again and it took me 45 minutes to even get past a spot about a quarter mile from my front door.
On those days, I was no where near pleasant or concerned with the feelings of others or patient. I was mad. I was late, I was trapped, I was wasting a huge chunk of my morning because I had been forgotten.
I am not a patient person.
It's true. You can ask my mom. Or M. They know my dirty little secret.
I have developed an ability to be calm under pressure (most of the time) or keep my cool when late flights, missed connections and travel misery is threatening to get me down, but it's largely all a coping mechanism for my lack of patience. It's true I can mind over matter my way through lots of things, but that doesn't always mean I'm not tearing myself up on the inside.
In a world of wanting things and wanting them now, it's hard to be patient. Part of my impatience I think stems less from my wanting things from other people as my wanting things from myself. Like lose 10 pounds...now. Read a stack of books...now. Learn to knit...now. Be able to run 5 miles...now. Grow a bountiful garden...now. Renovate a house...now. And when I can't do these things right away, I tend to be tough on myself, even when there are many external forces working against me. It's a character flaw for sure.
So this road construction slowing me down hasn't really been great for my mood every morning, but they have reminded me that patience is not something that comes naturally to me and it's something I have to work at.
Not just because patience is a virtue but when I start losing my patience, pretty much everything starts to stress me out and I cannot get anything done.
The road construction situation is improving as the work nears completion, but there will always be some roadblock, something that tries my patience. Lately there are many things in that realm.
I haven't figured out exactly how to best handle such things, but I'm trying to treat these construction delays as a lesson. Instead of losing my patience and getting upset do things like put my always connected smartphone to use and get some work done while I sit idling. Take a deep breath and think about my day, plotting out what I need to get done and how best to use my time. Looking out at the mountains or the vast expanse of the sky that earned Montana's nickname, Big Sky Country.
So I'll be over here trying to not get stuck at all these red lights and exercising my patience skills. It might be awhile.
How about you, are you patient? How do you manage those moments when you're running out of patience or are just straight out of it?
If I still lived in D.C., I'd just route around it and be on my merry way, but this is the only road to our house.
The construction will improve the road, it will be a good thing, and I refuse to be one of those obnoxious people who complain about everything (right as I typed that, I spilled my coffee all over the couch and myself).
But there were a few days when the pilot car just forgot about me after I'd been waiting for 30 minutes. The next day, they forgot about me again and it took me 45 minutes to even get past a spot about a quarter mile from my front door.
On those days, I was no where near pleasant or concerned with the feelings of others or patient. I was mad. I was late, I was trapped, I was wasting a huge chunk of my morning because I had been forgotten.
I am not a patient person.
It's true. You can ask my mom. Or M. They know my dirty little secret.
I have developed an ability to be calm under pressure (most of the time) or keep my cool when late flights, missed connections and travel misery is threatening to get me down, but it's largely all a coping mechanism for my lack of patience. It's true I can mind over matter my way through lots of things, but that doesn't always mean I'm not tearing myself up on the inside.
In a world of wanting things and wanting them now, it's hard to be patient. Part of my impatience I think stems less from my wanting things from other people as my wanting things from myself. Like lose 10 pounds...now. Read a stack of books...now. Learn to knit...now. Be able to run 5 miles...now. Grow a bountiful garden...now. Renovate a house...now. And when I can't do these things right away, I tend to be tough on myself, even when there are many external forces working against me. It's a character flaw for sure.
So this road construction slowing me down hasn't really been great for my mood every morning, but they have reminded me that patience is not something that comes naturally to me and it's something I have to work at.
Not just because patience is a virtue but when I start losing my patience, pretty much everything starts to stress me out and I cannot get anything done.
The road construction situation is improving as the work nears completion, but there will always be some roadblock, something that tries my patience. Lately there are many things in that realm.
I haven't figured out exactly how to best handle such things, but I'm trying to treat these construction delays as a lesson. Instead of losing my patience and getting upset do things like put my always connected smartphone to use and get some work done while I sit idling. Take a deep breath and think about my day, plotting out what I need to get done and how best to use my time. Looking out at the mountains or the vast expanse of the sky that earned Montana's nickname, Big Sky Country.
So I'll be over here trying to not get stuck at all these red lights and exercising my patience skills. It might be awhile.
How about you, are you patient? How do you manage those moments when you're running out of patience or are just straight out of it?
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