Maybe Impatience is a Virtue too

A bias to action can help you achieve more in life and career

Please enjoy this edited picture of me, Natalie Ruiz writing in one of my many notebooks. Thinking and planning certainly play a part in creating the right outcomes, but without decisive action, nothing happens!

Disclaimer: I know I am impatient. I cannot count the number of times someone has reminded me that patience is a virtue. As I have matured in life, I can discern between things I cannot control and the things I can, and this has helped me breathe through irritations like long lines and being placed on hold. It has also helped me zone in on what I can control and therefore improve. I’m here to say, I think that in some cases, being impatient is a virtue too!

I really hate feeling like my time is being wasted, and because of this, I am intentional about how I invest my days, hours, and minutes. At work, meetings have an agenda, my calendar is usually organized, and I ruthlessly prioritize what I am working on to make sure the most important things get addressed first. I even add time into my calendar for thinking, working out, eating, and reading because I know this helps ensure these things will actually happen.

I tend to have a bias toward action. This means I lean toward doing something vs sitting with inaction. HARAPPA defined this as “a type of cognitive bias that’s beneficial for personal and professional growth. It refers to the tendency of favoring action over inaction.”