The Tendency That Kills Joy

Tired of getting messages and updates from the writers’ platform I am subscribed to (Medium), I decided to spend an entire Saturday morning reading only those amazing articles that I had put on ice over the last weeks.

I get a message per day promoting a few stories that talk about the topics I like. A message per day with several articles during 2 weeks means I had a huge amount of publications to enjoy. My “Medium and chill” appointment started with one interesting post about how to become the person you want to be in the future.

Now, writers in this platform are highly skilled and organized. I could tell by the title that the story would have a few enumerated points about how to become “that future you”. Again, I had too many articles to read and assumed that the introduction wasn’t really an essential part of this one, so I skipped it. Needless to say, this wasn’t a conscious decision. I simply skipped the introduction and went straight to the first point.

The first point mentioned something along the lines of “imagine the person you want to be in a couple of years”.

Now, as you expect from an article, every point had a detailed explanation…which I also skipped. I mean, It’s not like I don’t understand what “imagining that person” means, right? And dozens of other articles were still waiting for me!

I read very fast, jumping from one point to another. After that, I repeated the same process with 2 other great pieces of writing and went to get a snack. Whilst eating a very unripped banana, I realized how little I had been enjoying myself. I was so determined to get to the conclusive points of every piece of writing that I hadn’t allowed myself to slowly relish them…

The obvious reason why I pay a monthly subscription is that I enjoy reading the content. I realized that my impatience was getting on my way to joy…

Impatience isn’t something new for me. I often tend to desire fast results, fast conclusions and delivery. If possible.

However, everything worthy takes time. Whenever it’s a book, creating a business, mastering a skill or even a good lasting relationship, patience is the main treatment that will help you improve and learn along every part of the whole process.

I have read a fair amount of articles blaming Millenials of lacking patience. We are used to having almost everything we want in the blink of an eye right now. We download music albums, books and movies in just a few minutes, we love watching the last season of House of Cards in 4 days and get same-day delivery for some extra cash. However, I never realized how impatience could be taken the enjoyment form the activities I love.

I have decided to force myself to scan every single word from the publications I decide to read from now on. If I don’t have the time, I will simply wait until the weekend. I am also aware that some of the mistakes I make are fairly common in today’s society, and I have made some deep professional research (aka, impatiently googling “How to get rid of impatience“).

Unsurprisingly, impatience can also cause other negative effects, like muscle tension, anxiety and irritability/anger.

Some of the remedies to treat “Impatientness” are breathing exercises and force yourself to wait instead of trying to look for the fast lane all the time. And, of course, be aware of it. Try to look at yourself and see which are the circumstances that make you impatient. Maybe waiting for a second train because you can’t get inside the first one. Or maybe driving gets you mad. Ask yourself what is the circumstance that challenges your patience and acknowledge it.

Which everyday activities you think are threatening your patience?