A Matter of Patience and Pride

Ecclesiastes 7:8 - The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.

According to osha.gov, in their article, “Injury and Illness Prevention Programs White Paper,” every year, more than 4.1 million workers suffer a serious job-related injury or illness.
 
So why are there so many injuries?
 

• People today are doing jobs that are more sedentary.
• Posture is another real problem.
• Many jobs require you to be in a forward-bent position.
• Loss of strength and flexibility due to declined fitness adds up to a predisposition to be injured at extreme positions.
• You also have another element factoring in – stress.
• A lot of people, under fairly normal situations, wouldn’t be injured.
  • But due to their heavy work load or high employer expectations, stress and exhaustion will come into play.

 
What can be done? Being proactive is the key. Many employers are now creating prevention programs to help cut down on these numbers. You may have even seen recommendations posted in or near a break room or main office at your work places.
 
In a previous post, I discussed how we can reduce injury not only at work, but also at home. The important thing to remember is to think about and plan your work ahead of time. Most of us are in such a hurry that we forget to be careful and end up getting injured.
 
There are two things that factor into protection against injury. They are patience and pride.
 
Take a look at the Bible verse above. When it comes to a project at work or at home, we can often become impatient when we or someone else isn’t working fast enough.
 
It can be very annoying when someone or something is blocking you from finishing a project. It’s like you only have one piece of the puzzle to have it completed only to find out someone else is holding onto that piece. You’re trying to work as quickly as you can, but you can’t seem to motivate the other person to hurry up.
 
Or perhaps it is you who is holding back a project’s completion. We often begin to work faster at finding the solution only to make mistakes along the way, because we’re not paying attention and then an injury happens.
 
Here’s a tip I try to remember myself – when I’m stuck or running out of time, I stand up, walk away from the project then return a few minutes later. Even just a few minutes of break is often all I needed to see a new side of a situation and find the answer I was looking for. Yes, patience is important.
 
The second thing that can block our way is pride.
 
Somehow you believe that you don’t need anyone else’s help. So you run into a complicated part of a project which you’ve never done before and are delayed because you’re just not willing to ask someone for help. This is especially dangerous on the job, because you might lift something that’s too heavy for one person and end up hurting yourself.
 
Here’s a tip – you can still feel good about completing a project with someone else’s help. Sure, that might get part of the recognition, but it can be an example to others showing that getting help can increase productivity. When you don’t risk becoming injured that can also be an example to others to reach for help when needed.
 
And that’s part of what the Bible verse above is talking about. It’s the end that can be a source of pride when you exercised patience to complete it and remained uninjured.
 
Select the link below and find more ways to keep job-related injuries “off your back.”

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