Day 128 of #LiveWell2017

“Patience is not the ability to wait. Patience is to be calm no matter what happens, constantly take action to turn it to positive growth opportunities, and have faith to believe that it will all work out in the end while you are waiting.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

Patience goes hand-in-hand with acceptance sometimes. Acceptance is about being OK with the way things are, about abandoning certain expectations. I’ve had to practice patience this spring as I dealt with Healthcare.gov, trying to get my 1095-A forms so I could file my taxes. It’s a long story, but the gist of it is that I had to file an extension because – for some unknown reason – one of my 1095-A forms has not yet been generated and sent to me. This is not OK. I like doing things on time. It is frustrating to call and call and call again about the same issue and still not have it resolved. So, this is my opportunity to practice patience – and acceptance.

Today, on the phone for the fourth time with a lovely Tier 2 helper at the Healthcare.gov phone center, much of my frustration and angst melted away by one simple phrase from her: “You’ve done your due diligence, so I’m going to send a note to the agency that oversees this process.” Yes, I have done my due diligence. I started working on this issue in February, in plenty of time for it to be resolved before my taxes were due to be filed. It sure was nice to finally have someone acknowledge that I have done all I can (in spades) instead of just saying “I’m sorry you are having this issue, but you have to wait another 30 days for the form to come in the mail (or not).”

Still, here I am, in unresolved limbo, but I am being patient, calm, turning this into a positive growth experience, and having faith that it will all work out in the end, thanks to some kind words and a lot of deep breaths.

What helps you to be more patient?