One of the keys of living a happy life is found in the phrase, "Expectations are premeditated resentments". We talk all the time about how we expect someone to do this, or expect them to say that (whether in business or personal lives, it's the same), and when they don't, we get angry, hurt, depressed, etc.
While I could have a whole post dedicated to just that concept, and how dropping expectations in general and turning to something other than expectations can help you be happy (and I just might do that at a later time), I am thinking specifically about the time-based element of life. When we don't get what we want when we want it, it creates a whole new experience. Even if we get what we wanted later, that experience can be tainted by the resentment built up by not getting it when we wanted it.
Being willing to accept where we are at in life and any progress towards goals as worthy of celebration brings true happiness. Patience is the essence of being willing to wait for wonderful things. We may never get the wonderful things we wanted in the first place (just ask any infertile couple who wanted children of their own), but that's for another post on gratitude.
Someone who is patient is able to look forward with anticipation to a future event without an expectation attached to a certain timeframe. I may like it more if I get it sooner, but at the end of the day, I am satisfied to wait until it comes. Patience does not imply fatalism, or encourage sitting around and waiting rather than working hard towards a goal, it simply is an acceptance of the time factors outside of your control.
There are so many things in life that we desire, and we get a very small amount of these at any given moment, so an impatient person will see all the unachieved belongings or events or what-have-you with building resentment rather than focusing on the wonderful things they have right there. Happiness is resisting resentment, and accepting the timeframe that life imposes through patience. Patience grants peace of heart in spite of disappointment due to temporal complications.
Patience spares us stress while waiting for what we want in life. Doing otherwise spoils our happiness in the present moment.
Current mood: patient
No comments:
Post a Comment