Patience isn’t sitting still. It’s doing the next small thing while the big thing takes its time.

Patience gets pictured as sitting very still and being calm about it, which is why people think they are bad at it. The real version is active and fairly boring. The big thing runs on its own clock and you cannot touch that clock, so the only question left is what you do with the hours while it runs.

Write down the thing you are waiting on and the one small thing you can do today that points at it. Then do the small thing. Waiting with your hands busy feels completely different from waiting with them empty.