Don't Try Your Patience, Test It

Patience is said to be one of the greatest virtues. That's time-tested wisdom. However, few of us take ‘patience' as a skill or attribute to be cultured separately, tested and improved to make our lives better. What few of us know or realize is that ‘patience' is one of the best tools in your arsenal for stress-management, and as a corporate counsel your job's going to make you stressed, whether you admit it or not.
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Earlier this year, the Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics published a study that found that ethics and compliance officers are so stressed that at least 60% of them thought at least once of quitting their jobs, even in this tough economy! Burnout has become frequent, and it's time to take things seriously before you get seriously hurt.

Major causes of stress for corporate counsel:

According to the SCCE study, the following were found to cause the greatest cause of stress for corporate compliance personnel. Taking them into consideration and putting them likewise on your priority list would help to combat stress effectively.
 

1. The prime cause of stress is the struggle to keep pace with new regulations: So make a habit of keeping up to date and continuing to use your mind and effectively using your note-taking habits, so that at all times – you know that ‘you know' at least what is being talked about
2. The next biggest cause of stress is finding, investigating, preventing and preempting misconduct. Clean ups and cover ups are extremely stressful due to the ethical tightrope one often has to walk. You never know when the rules are going to change and one day your company hits the headlines and the s*** hits the fan. Again knowledge is your biggest help.

Patience and Stress Management:

While culturing patience we know that the biggest thing is impulse control and curbing the desire to jump to conclusions or speak out of turn or do anything that makes us seem hasty. But, that's hardly sufficient to really culture patience. For strengthening patience, meditation helps a lot, but to test patience and find out where you stand, it is easier to check for signs of impatience.

Physical symptoms of impatience are easy to find. When in reaction to any situation you find the following reactions in isolation or combination, you are being impatient. Impatience can also be the result or precursor of severe physical ailments, so it is also good to see a doctor if you feel impatient consistently and continually:

The chief symptoms of impatience are: shallow breathing, hand clenching, muscle tension, restless feet, palpable anxiety, tendency to rush, too quick decision-making.

To culture patience or deal with your impatience, it is possible to identify ‘what triggers impatience' for you. You can find some reasons right away if only you took the time to think about them. Friends and family too have a serious role to play if they are frank and willing to share their knowledge about what makes you impatient.

One of the best ways to control your impatience is to keep a journal and note down what makes you feel impatient. It is not always about work related stress, but the cause might be physical, like hunger or dehydration, but the results can affect your work and output.
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Try to keep impatience under control by breathing techniques, relaxation techniques and most importantly, by keeping a strong rein on your emotions. Patience can win the day for you.