LACKING PATIENCE!

The saying — “patience is a virtue” comes from the poem called Piers Plowman, created in 1360–1387. The original author of the quote is William Langland.

To a certain extent I agree with this quote but having patience is not easy especially when people seem to have a laid-back attitude to everything in life.

There are many examples, in my experience, that I can speak about, even with wit, as I sit down in my comfort zone on a Sunday evening.

I am not perfect, and I am only human but if I make a promise to do a task for someone, I am genuine enough to keep it and deliver the service asap.

I fully understand that people have other priorities in their lives, but I find it very annoying when you find yourself having to remind that person to complete the task, it eventually falls by the wayside.

Timekeeping is an important skill. It requires discipline and reduces the stress of feeling under pressure to get from A to B.

I am extremely strict when it comes to time and cannot tolerate people who operate in lastminute.com mode.

An example is when I receive an invitation which strictly states the date and time I will add it to my mobile calendar, as a reminder, I would check out how long it would take me to get to the location on an ordinary day and allow time for any disruptions that could happen.

If there was a chance that I was going to be late end I would phone or text ahead of time.

In my mind, I believe that people who tend to make a habit of being late show no regard or respect for anyone but themselves. I have an exceptionally low tolerance level when it come to waiting around for people especially if they are more than 15 minutes late.

This also seems to happen a lot around conferences that I have attended. The starting time seems to always be anything from half an hour late. People turn up when it suits them and have no concern for others who have the respect to attend on time hence the show must go on later than planned and this means finishing way past the expected time.

I have voiced my opinions before and am met with the blasé attitude of the slothful timekeepers.

I understand that some people can have difficulties with time due to their state of mind or their disability, but I am not ready to make the excuse for the people who are able.

I am not a lover of shopping centres as I dislike crowds and the fact that people are not aware of the space around them. For instance, you go to a supermarket and find that the aisle is not accessible because someone has decided to leave their trolley in the middle of the walking area whilst perusing the produce on the shelves.

Another annoying factor are those who spend time chatting to the cashier when clearly there is a long queue in which you are waiting.

When I am walking on the pavement in a public place there are sometimes a family or group of people taking up the whole pavement walking slowly, and I end up having to walk in the road.

I have mentioned this many times before that I am not fond of listening to people who tend to hold long drawn-out conversations and tend to escape as soon as possible. I believe that they love the sound of their own voice and are not interested in your opinion. This tends to happen a lot in group meetings and leaves less time for anybody else to talk.

I believe that people need to be less selfish and to remind themselves that there are other people who are on this planet that want to be treated like they matter.

I always say, ‘time is of the essence’ and I have zero tolerance when it comes to waiting for a simple task to be done. If we all operated at a slow pace the industry would suffer.

There is a great difference between being slow and just being too laid back or lazy. This is where I lack patience.

I believe that the reason we have a lot of time wasted is because of the pace that people tend to get things done. There seems to be no consistency, and this is where you will find a whole lot of angry people amongst others who really do not care.

My experiences of talking to a customer service adviser today in a lot of circumstances, is extremely different to about twenty years ago. I noticed the lack of the professionalism that we used to have and sometimes you are left waiting for over an hour only to be cut off.

In general, the only patience that I do have is for people who genuinely need my time.

They say life is short, so I am now trying to live everyday with purpose.

In everything there must be a balance even in time and space.

Natalie Bleau

The Scripture of Balance.