Patience, Tolerance, and Understanding

 

   Today I wanted to write about patience, tolerance, and understanding, starting from other life examples ;)  Some relative words and concepts I may say. And yet when we interact in life with different situations, we start on acknowledging the main idea behind these words very quickly. As quickly as we learn also about the opposite term of them. Mainly not having patience, nor tolerance, nor understanding. 

   I’ve realized recently, after one meeting with a friend, that, in general, is more easy to see those things that upset us in our interaction with others, but if we do a similar thing to someone else, we don’t think about the impact that our action may have on the other person. 

   Let me be more specific. We have the following two situations:

 

         -          A woman and a man, once married, now divorced, with a little baby boy. The boy stays with the mother. They have agreed on the visiting timetable, regarding the child schedule. In one of the days, he establishes a meeting between him, his ex-wife, their boy and another couple of friends, and just let his ex-wife know about the situation. The woman is very upset with her ex-husband because he didn’t consult her prior to establish that meeting with the other couple.

 

        -          The same woman, different scenario. She establishes a meeting with one of her friends. Let’s call it “Friend A”. Meanwhile, without asking her “Friend A” the opinion about also inviting to their meeting “Friend B”, she goes along and invite “Friend B” to their meeting. When the same woman from both of these life situations comes up to the meeting with “Friend A”, she just let her friend know about the situation, presuming that “Friend A” will not be upset about the arrangement.

   Now, coming back to the idea of patience, tolerance, and understanding. I just ask myself, it would not be this world a better and better place every day if, instead of jumping into conclusions, or staying more focused on the negative, to try to be more understanding? 

   I’m not saying to be taken for a full, or let for anyone else to take advantage of your kind heart, or dictate on your time. I’m just saying that, maybe, trying to make a sort of mentally exercise every time we face different life situations, that may transform us into a grumpy person (:D), just to remember that no one is perfect. And that, maybe what you claim so hard and loud that you don’t do, or what you expect from others to give you, have in mind that you should give in return. Talking about “human expectations”, in a future article ;)

   Bringing all together, understanding, forgiveness, tolerance, patience, good spirit, and kind soul is the appanage of the people with a strong emotional attitude. In the same time, don’t confuse them with other feelings that come from other corners of our soul, starting from childhood through adolescence and while becoming a grown up. 

   When was the last time you’ve put yourself in someone else shoes, and truly understand his or her emotions and feelings? :)

Patience Is a Virtue

   

   Guys, I don’t know about you, but me, every time I feel that I need a recharge, I start with some writing or reading a good book, among other things…like a strong coffee or a cup of tea full of flavors. Recently I felt that I need to start reorganizing my life. Maybe because after two days of having some fever and after other days full of different thoughts and decisions, I got to that point in life when realizing some interesting things about patience.

   Exactly like my mentor once told me, patience is a virtue. But I suddenly realized that this applies in some specific circumstances. Because meanwhile, I felt a very strong sense of accountability about the fact that:

• I have patience for the people that understand the value of time and how priceless it is.
• I have patience to discuss in a structured and organized way, setting clear goals, all wrapped with the sense of efficiency, positivism, effectiveness, and diplomacy. 
• I stopped having patience with people that don’t know what they want, that they find themselves different excuses and are chaotic. And yes, for me it’s a big difference between being chaotic and being disorganized. I appreciate the lesson received through this kind of interactions, but now it’s time to move on.
• I have patience for situations when I can see that different strong life situations can appear in someone’s life. Patience, understanding, common sense, and empathy go hand in hand for me.
• I have patience for constructive conversations and activities, for constructive feedback, sharing knowledge and creative beautiful ideas. If someone doesn’t learn already to feel and see the difference between, for example, a constructive feedback and being negative, I don’t have the patience to explain something else related.
• And still counting :))

   So yes, for me patience is something limited and I got to that point in life where I want to feel it and embrace it with those extraordinary people that I care about and who stay by my side. Very often we are tempted to be involved in different patience-consuming situations that ultimately leave us with a despairing sense of the futility of time. Why not being more involved in constructive-patience, good, and beautiful interactions, with quality people? Obviously, this is strictly related to our inner self, our personality and how much we know and accept what we know about ourselves. What I understand through “quality people”, in a future article ;)

   In the end, when have you felt that you were very patience and what is the life situation that made you feel like losing your patience? And what was the learning out of those two situations? Sharing is still a wonderful caring :)

The Magic of Words

  

   Magic? Words? There is a magic understanding in using words? This is something that recently I’ve realized once again, moreover when discussing with a friend why do I like to use this word.

   Yes, for me it’s more about the feeling that stays behind the word/terminology/ you name it. Because I’ve realized along the way that also by selecting your words carefully, you can have a huge impact on your state of mind, on what do you subconsciously transmit to those around you, and ultimately in the kind of day you have. Relaxed or grumpy, positive or negative, productive or lazy, motivated or not, take your pick.

   Most likely this word stood so clear into my mind after reading a great book: “The Magic of Thinking Big”, a book which I totally recommend, because has some great ideas that I believe they are worth considering at least. But also to put into practice ;) Talking about those ideas extracted from the book, I believe they are very useful for both our professional and personal life, as well as in any other circumstances you consider.

  

    With over 6 million books sold, Ph.D. David Schwartz highlights relevant inputs about the importance of thinking in a certain way (obviously, most of the time, because everyone is entitled to have some bad days once in a while :D). The thirteen chapters of his books are listed below:

1. Believe You Can Succeed and You Will
2. Cure Yourself of Exquisitis, The Failure Disease
3. Build Confidence and Destroy Fear
4. How to Think Big
5. How to Think and Dream Creatively
6. You Are What You Think You Are
7. Manage Your Environment: Go First Class
8. Make Your Attitudes Your Allies
9. Think Right Toward People
10. Get The Action Habit
11. How to Turn Defeat into Victory
12. Use Goals to Help You Grow
13. How to Think Like a Leader

   Coming back to the title of my article, for me, it’s a combination between the title of the above-mentioned book, correlated with a lesson learned to start from very young. Meaning that words can make a huge difference in once life: the child can become more confident, the young boy or girl that steps into adolescence can become more open in conversations, the employee can feel more appreciated and give better results in his or her work, the wife or husband feels a stronger connection to one another, and so on and so forth. Obviously, If the words are carefully selected in a positive way, and again, most of the times.

   And talking about words, I remember so clear how I felt when visiting Derby, a little city two hours from London, and every time I stopped into a shop or just asking a small question, everybody was addressing to me with “Yes, Love”, “My Dear”, “Thank you”, or “Please”. So yes, for me there is a certain “magic” in knowing to speak in a positive way, in trying to bring to the surface those extraordinary feelings that can make us better and better. In the same time, being aligned with the same idea that my friend gave me, there are words that once spoken, always leave a mark on those around us.

   So have a lovely life, with extraordinary moments and marvelous people that can make all the difference in the world. After all, life is so beautiful, short, and priceless, that definitely is worth to enjoy to the maximum.