The title of this post is a very well-known phrase. As with many such statements, it is much easier to believe than it is to practice. While this year has tested our patience more than most, it is important to recognize that whatever circumstances you find yourself in, both in school and in life, both now and in the future, there will always be things that test your patience. Learning to recognize your impatience and find your way through it instead of becoming frustrated and overwhelmed by it is much easier said than done, but it is both a study skill and a life skill. As with every other skill I’ve discussed in my posts, it can be worked on and improved with practice, and the more patient you try to be, the more patient you will become.
The first step to becoming more patient is recognizing that before you can become more patient with anyone or anything else, you should resolve to work on becoming more patient with yourself. Finding things hard that others seem to do more easily, needing to put more time and effort into your studies than your siblings or peers do, and not seeing your efforts to improve your study skills pay off as quickly or completely as you’d like can make you feel justifiably frustrated and impatient. Instead of giving in to those feelings, which can cause you to feel tempted to give up on the goals you are reaching for, remind yourself to be patient by focusing on the successes you have had, no matter how small, as well as on the idea that the best things in life often take time. Since you are growing up in a much faster-paced world, with an increased emphasis on instant gratification than there used to be, the idea that you need to be patient with yourself and work to achieve success over time must seem particularly difficult to comprehend, let alone put into practice, but it really is the best way to make the most progress, and in turn, to achieve the most success.
Another way in which you can become more patient with yourself is by recognizing and accepting your own strengths and weaknesses, and at the same time, recognizing that even the people who seem to you to have only strengths actually have weaknesses as well. If you find yourself becoming frustrated by, or perhaps even jealous of, your peers seeming to make school look so easy when it is so much harder for you, try to remember that they may feel just as frustrated by or jealous of something you do well that they might wish they were better at. Maybe you are a better athlete, or a better artist, or are more social. Maybe you do better with the more hands-on aspects of learning, and they wish just as much to be better at those as you do to be better at the more academic side of things. When you find certain things more challenging than those around you do, it is much easier to lose patience with yourself than it is to recognize that they might look at you and feel the exact same way. Maybe it should be obvious, but whenever you find yourself losing patience with your weaknesses, remind yourself of your strengths, and remind yourself, too, that no matter how it might appear, no one is perfect. As I’ve said before, focusing on doing your best with what you have and striving to make improvements where you can matters most. The more patient with yourself you become, the better you will become at doing the best you can do, and the better you become at doing the best you can do, the more success you will see.
Becoming more patient with yourself also means recognizing that like many study skills and life skills, it is something you most likely will need to continue to strive to improve, not just through the remainder of your schooling, but throughout your life as well. It probably didn’t take much effort for you to notice just how much your teachers and parents’ patience was tried over this past year. Even though the pandemic created some of the most unexpected circumstances any of us have ever faced, let what the adults in your lives went through and how they dealt with it remind you that you can always strive to be more patient, and that no matter how patient you become, there may always be times when you lose patience and need to remind yourself again to cut yourself a break and accept that the best you can do is good enough. As I’ve said before about many other study skills, the only unacceptable option is giving up. You may not feel very patient right now, as both the end of the school year and the hoped-for return to a more normal existence seem tantalizingly close, but as hard as it might be to do, this is a good time to practice patience, because the more patient you are while you wait for it, the better the payoff will be.
Though you may not have realized it before you read this post, patience is not only a life skill – it’s a study skill, too. As with other study skills, patience is something that can be practiced, developed, and improved over time. Becoming more patient with yourself through whatever challenges you face, both in and out of the classroom, recognizing and accepting your own strengths and weaknesses, as well as that everyone has them, and remembering that the need to practice patience and strive to improve it is lifelong, can help you all along your study skills journey, and be an important part of your success.