Has your level of patience changed as you've aged?

I’m much more patient and continue to get moreso

Its gone down… way down.

I notice if I binge Netflix, and watch an entire season in two days, my patience in everything else is very low.

But if I discipline myself to watch the same program one episode at a time, one week at a time, my patience for everything else seems much more at ease. Gives me a sense of maturity and accomplishment. Makes me feel stronger about everything.

I’ve mellowed (believe it or not) and gotten generally more patient. I still get instantly irate when someone does something particularly boneheaded or rude (especially while driving), but the ire goes away just as instantly. I’d just as soon have that rude or stupid driver ahead of me where I can keep an eye on him and widen the gap if need be, rather than return his rudeness or stupidity by being equally rude or stupid “to get even”.

I also understand that for various reasons I do enjoy a certain amount of privilege, so I’ve tried to develop the sense of noblesse oblige to accompany that.

When I’m taking too much thyroid meds (basically that means I’m in a state of medically induced hyperthyroid) I am impatient, angry, can’t sleep enough hours, and feel like I can’t handle one more thing. This is even worse as I age. Even worse that my life has felt unstable for a few years now. I’m really pissed off about it.

I’ve gotten better, and I don’t agree that people necessarily beome more patient with time. Is patience the same as tolerance?

For some things yes, but for others, no.

I’ve never had any patience in general. Waiting in line? Nope, I can’t stand still or not fidget. Waiting for someone – especially if they’re late? Can’t do it without sighing a lot and wondering what the hell is taking so long.

But I especially have no patience for certain viewpoints anymore. If people are morally bankrupt, I can’t even give them the time of day. Unless, that is, they push me to a certain point. Then there is no calmly explaining why they suck so much as a human being.

I have exactly zero patience.

Depends on the thing. I have no problem waiting in a line or getting stuck in traffic. However, I go from zero to furious when my mom takes a million words to spell out why she needs to borrow twenty bucks. I don’t care why.. Give me a amount and STFU.

No. It’s basically changed based on my mood of the day and other things that affect my feeling at the moment. When I feel happy during the day I can be the most patient person on earth. When I have a bad day, I mean really, really, bad day, then I can explode anytime for the slightest provocation.

Both yes and no.

I find that as I have gotten older my patience for stupidity has decreased while my ability to tolerate ignorance has increase as long as the person does not wallow in their ignorance.

Yes. It’s improved. I think that’s the case because my level of tolerance is up.

Looking back I really struggled…(unnecessarily so) with a short fuse. Age and maintaining my health are top priority now and leaves little room for other than slow deep breathing and lots of exercise. I will leave getting your undies in a bunch to the other hot heads in the world.

It depends on the issue/person. I have much less tolerance for fools or people who are lazy or think they can pull the wool over my eyes. I don’t have any time for that sort of crap.

However, I have much more empathy for people who are struggling as long as they’re doing what they can to extract themselves from whatever situation they’re in. I’ve learned to not sweat the small stuff. I have to impose rules in my job, and I observe some of my peers (or admin staff particularly) being totally rigorous, but nothing in life is black or white – there is always grey. So while my goal is always to be equitable and fair, I don’t impose rules just because the rule is there. There are always occasions when I can see the need to bend rules a little. So I’ve become more patient in some ways.

I’m renowned for my patience, should’ve been a doctor.
Just last week Carstairs was 30secs late with my morning coffee & I only docked him a day’s pay, a year ago it would have been a month’s sanction…i’m all heart.

I have absolutely zero patience. I work in a large company and the amount of really stupid questions and the most ridiculous answers I get is unreal. The biggest one, is them not knowing where they work within the company, trying to keep patience is a skill, and one I’m not great at.

No, my patience has never changed. It has always stayed at an average level. I don’t mind waiting, as long as you don’t abuse my patience.

I am more patient with things like children, or animals. My patience for adult people grows less every day…In terms of driving, I’m at the point where I wouldn’t care if certain drivers crashed and burned right in front of me, for their actions on the road. Much like how people say things online that they wouldn’t normally say in public because they are protected by anonymity , people act a certain way in automobiles because they don’t usually have ramifications. A coward may feel invincible in their big SUV in comparison to a guy on a motorcycle. They would never act the same way on foot . Someone would punch them in their idiot face. I hear people throwing the ‘n’ word around a lot online, but they’re sitting in their Mom’s basement. They wouldn’t dare say that word if there were people around who would be upset. People are pathetic. When they get the opportunity, they will always disappoint.
Same thing with Trump. He says the things he does because he has security. If he was by himself in a room with lots of people who might be offended , he’d likely keep his stupid mouth shut…

My level of patience has stayed about the same, the focus has dramatically shifted. Like @Earthbound_Misfit, I have much less patience with fools, or mean people or situations that can, with a bit of effort, be shifted to favorable. In a rather clichéd fashion, now that my perception of time has speeded up and I have less of it, I am more patient about waiting in necessary lines and things like that.

After reading @DrasticDreamer‘s answer I realize I didn’t even think about things like waiting in line. I always had patience for this, but I would say I have more now as I get older. What I do do, is avoid long lines if I can semi control it. I try to do things off hours if possible.

I also have much more patience to listen to other people’s stories, and get to know them, even if I’ll never see them again. As I got older I appreciated more that you can’t judge a book by its cover, and everyone is interesting, especially “older” people.

Where I really lose my patience the most is with my family. Horrible, but true.

I think as I aged my empathy grew considerably, which gave me more patience in some areas.

It has. I am much more patient in terms of waiting, being in line, traffic, etc. I try to be in the moment and have learned to calmly spend time in my head instead of fidgeting and getting antsy.

However, like @DrasticDreamer, my patience for poor and hurtful behavior is much less. I suffer fools less now.

Well, my perspective on time has definitely shifted as I’ve gotten older, so that what used to seem like a vast amount of time now goes by in a flash. I now expect that anticipated events will be upon me surprisingly soon; there’s no such thing as “far off” anymore, it seems. Chicago winters, which used to be interminable, now scoot right by (though still not as quickly as the summers). All of that does make me feel as though I’m never really waiting around for anything. Whatever it is, it’ll be here soon enough.

In terms of patience as forbearance, there’s been a shift there too. Not much strikes me as worth worrying about anymore. Little perturbations come and go, and things usually work out just fine. Maybe not in the way I would have chosen, but just fine anyway.

And finally, as for patience toward people and their foibles, I’ve worked long enough on my own foibles to know how entrenched and impervious to reason they can be, and how hard it can be to even see these things in the first place, or imagine that a better way is possible. I’ve had to really work at being patient with myself in all this, and I guess I’m more inclined to cut others some slack as a result.

I’m overall less able to spend time on things/people that bore or annoy me. I move on more quickly than I used to. I don’t make a fuss on my walk away from whatever it is… I just go.

I had to rethink this question when I started seeing other people’s answers. In ways, my patience has actually increased significantly. Like in dealing with kids, difficult animals and people who don’t get to the point when they talk (etc). I’m also more willing to listen to people about certain viewpoints than I used to be. But in general, I still feel (for everyday things – like lines, waiting to do something fun, waiting for a late person, etc.) I still really suck at. And I don’t get angry impatient like a lot of people, just… impatient. lol

I am much more patient with children and much less with adults. I only have so much time and energy these days so I budget accordingly. I received a incorrect billing after explaining something to a grown man. He still did it wrong and misguided the mutual company service I use. I had to explain to this young girl on the phone why what she sent me was wrong because of what this man did. You really didn’t want to be either of those people that day. She couldn’t understand so I said to her, you have to just ignore it because I am. Next time that man brings me an account I’m going to tell him I’m not his secretary and throw it back at him.

I don’t think it’s so much as we get older we tend to have “more”, or “less” patience. I believe we’re just a summation of our life experiences. Depending on the events that take place in your life, you will in turn change perspectives accordingly.

As I have had more experiences my patience for particulars has changed dramatically; day-to-day, week-to-week, yearly..