Patience is running out in our modern society. Modern society. That refers to a social group that’s current, living in the present, up to date. But, it turns out, being current doesn’t necessarily been being better than what was. You need only look around and see how backwards we are as a species in these modern times.

Our technology has surpassed our maturity to use them. And I’m speaking as a species. Sure, there are individuals and groups of individuals who have are worthy of being leaders of our people. Usually these are not, in fact, the people who are recognised as leaders of our people. Unless they have a decent level of marketing hype to appease the low attention-span, entertainment hungry masses.

Which brings me back to the topic of patience. As a species accustomed to the Americanised way of life, we crave instant gratification and bite-sized snippets. This article in itself may already be far too long for the average Internet surfer. And I haven’t yet broken 200 words. How crazy is that?

I am not immune to this trait either. I find myself fall prey to this attention deficit all the time. TV shows, articles, books. If I’m not hooked within a certain arbitrary period of time, I’ve got no time for it. Why? Well, in my case, I’ve the illusion that there may be something that I’m missing out on that is more interesting. Other times, I’d just rather spend my time playing games, sleeping or otherwise arbing around. I enjoy arbing around. It feeds my soul 🙂

However, I do often catch myself, take a breath, and remind myself that life is in itself an exciting adventure. I can find pleasure simply standing in a post office queue if I choose to be present and notice what’s around me instead of thinking about what I could be doing instead. This is my meditation. Where ever I am, what ever I may be doing. Sitting in traffic, waiting for someone, standing in line. There is nothing more important than just being.
Your employers may want you to feel different about this. But, in all honesty, and from my experience, every crisis in the business is usually not critical. Usually it’s just about somebody’s ego being inconvenience.

And, yes, this may depend on what business you’re in and vary from situation to situation. If nobody’s life is in jeopardy, however, what else classifies a situation as a crisis. Why must we rush in traffic, literally jeopardising our lives and our fellow drivers, in order to be on time to satisfy somebody’s ego? Why do we need to watch every news broadcast? Why must we make every social event?

Why must everything happen now?

Patience. Embrace it. Everything happens in due time. We have very little control over the process of life and anything can happen. This is something I am still learning. I also get upset and angry and frustrated at the silliest things. There’s no reason to beat ourselves up about it. Just recognise it and laugh. Then smell the coffee, wave at a butterfly, and blow a kiss to a passing taxi driver.

Life is really enjoyable and peaceful when you accept that, ultimately, there are very few emergencies. A lunch order that took 20 minutes to prepare instead of 10 minutes is no reason to turn into the Hulk. Breathe, relax, smile, and skip on.