Patience

Patience is a skill that seems to be rapidly disappearing from our society.

We live in an age where everything becomes available quicker, if not instantly. Information is within reach in a matter of seconds, thanks to ubiquitous technology.

We can now even skip through ads and credits to the start of the next episode of our favourite TV show streamed online.

But what is that teaching us, and our children, about patience?

In martial arts, we learn that it takes time to build self-confidence in our skills in applying the techniques that we learn. It may feel like it takes only a lesson or two to understand the basic movement involved in learning a new skill but, once you start practising it, you realise that there seems to be endless room for improvement.

Some techniques take weeks, months or even years to feel like you've mastered them. And sometimes, we learn to wait until we are actually ready to attempt our grading or move onto a new technique.

Learning patience by biding our time to master a technique is something that can positively apply to life off the mats in the real world. It can help us be more patient while:

waiting for our turn in a line
waiting for someone who is slower than us to move out of the way
waiting for someone to finish talking until it's our turn to talk – which can teach us to better LISTEN and understand others
waiting for the right time to do something or obtain something that we really want
learning that being bored while we wait is actually okay.

Find ways in which you can practise patience towards the people in your life.