This One Flaw Is Costing You Time, Focus And Respect
It's easy to mistake impatience for a drive. In fast-paced environments, especially in leadership or entrepreneurship, that restless energy often looks like ambition. But in truth, it's something deeper and more damaging. Impatience, more than just a reaction, is a pattern. One that subtly chips away at your clarity, your presence and the respect you command.
Impatience rarely comes from what's happening now. It's usually tied to old memories or fears about what's coming. To lead with confidence and calm, we need to recognize when we're caught in that cycle—and learn how to break it.
Why Impatience Isn't Really About The Moment You're In
You might think impatience is triggered by things like a delayed email or a slow project. But take a closer look: It's not about what's happening now. It's about what your mind thinks might happen next or something that has already happened before.
This is why impatience feels so stressful. Your nervous system isn't responding to the moment at hand. It's reacting to a story your brain is telling.
And when you're truly present, that need to rush fades away. You're not stuck in the past, and you're not leaping into the future. You're just here. Calm. Aware.
Here's something to try: The next time you feel that urge to push or panic, pause and ask yourself, "Is there anything wrong right now? Or am I reacting to something that isn't even real yet?" That simple question can bring you back to yourself.
Experimental studies on the affect heuristic have shown that under time pressure (a proxy for impatience), individuals rely more on their emotional instincts, leading to riskier judgments and poorer decision outcomes.
Bring Yourself Back To Now: Simple Presence Habits
Staying present doesn't mean doing nothing. It means doing one thing fully. And that kind of presence strengthens with small, consistent practice.
Here are a few quick ways to start:
• Listen to understand. When you're talking to someone, stop planning what you'll say next. Just listen. It changes the whole dynamic and keeps you grounded.
• Use your breath. When your stress rises, stop and take three long, conscious breaths. That alone can clear your mind.
• Set a morning anchor. Before your day begins, remind yourself: "Today, I choose to lead with presence." That intention stays with you more than you think.
You can also block 30-minute sessions in your day where you focus on just one thing, whether it's a task, a conversation or even quiet reflection. No multitasking. No checking your phone. Just full, undivided attention.
Two Longer-Term Habits To Restore Your Patience
Phones are designed to steal your focus, and they do it very well. One buzz, one ping and your attention fractures. Your brain starts craving constant input. Impatience thrives in that environment.
If you want more calm and clarity, you need to set firmer boundaries with your tech.
You can start with these steps:
• Keep your phone out of the bedroom. Waking up without notifications helps you begin your day with more control and less stress.
• Make room for tech-free time. During deep work or important conversations, put your phone in another room. The mental quiet it creates is noticeable.
• Turn off nonessential notifications. Every alert is a micro-distraction. Disabling them helps your brain relearn what focus feels like.
Disclaimer: These tips are general suggestions and may not suit all lifestyles. Adjust based on your personal needs and circumstances.
Your phone itself isn't the enemy. It's your relationship with it that matters. The moment you create even a small space between you and it, be it physically or mentally, you begin to take back control.
That tiny gap softens the grip of urgency and gives your attention room to breathe, away from the constant tug of impatience.
A recent study quoted in Harvard Business Review found that even hearing your phone buzz can hurt your performance. The notification pulls you away from important matters, even if you don't check it.
Impatience isn't about this moment. It's your mind fast-forwarding to what might go wrong or rewinding to fix what already happened. In leadership, this often looks like rushing to meet others' expectations, fearing any slip-ups or constantly trying to avoid repeating past failures.
If you've ever succeeded through hustle or survived setbacks through urgency, your nervous system may have learned that speeding up equals staying safe. But that's just a survival strategy, not a long-term solution.
The key is to notice when you're doing it. Ask yourself:
• "Am I reacting to something that hasn't happened yet?"
• "Is this pace actually necessary or just familiar?"
• "How would this feel if I moved from a place of calm instead of stress?"
Even asking one of these questions helps break the autopilot loop.
The Quiet Power Of Leading With Patience
Patience isn't about waiting. It's about choosing how you show up. When you remove the pressure to rush, you access a deeper kind of leadership. It's steady. It's intentional. And it earns trust.
Learning to lead without impatience takes effort. It means being aware of your triggers, setting real boundaries and practicing presence until it becomes natural.
But it's possible.
Impatience is learned, and that means it can be unlearned. With time and practice, you can lead from presence instead of pressure. And that's where true impact begins.
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Transcript: Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Aug. 3, 2025
The following is the transcript of an interview with Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Aug. 3, 2025. MARGARET BRENNAN: And we're back with Bank of America CEO, Brian Moynihan, good morning, and thank you for being here with us. BRIAN MOYNIHAN: Good to be here again, Margaret, hope you're doing well. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I'm hoping you can give us some clarity here on what's going on with the economy. Your Bank of America economists say no rate hikes this year and no recession. Is that still the case after Friday's jobs report? BRIAN MOYNIHAN: Yeah, it's still the case, and that's a—less growth than they would have had six, nine months ago, and reflects the impact of the tariff war and the trade and all that—but they still think we continue to grow. And we're growing at a slow rate, say, one and a half percent this year, little more next year, and a little more the year after that. But it will take inflation—for the Fed to get inflation out of the system, really through the end of '26 into '27 down to the 2% level. And that's why they have the Fed holding. What they believe is sort of in the middle of next year, the Fed will start cutting and bring the Fed funds rate closer to what would be a more normal rate, around three percent, three and a half percent. MARGARET BRENNAN: Even though we saw this, really, kind of astounding dissent by two members of the Fed saying, we do need to move on interest rates. Your prediction from your economists is that that's not appropriate at this time. BRIAN MOYNIHAN: They don't think it's—they're going to move. Now, the market says they're going to move in September, maybe twice this year. The market was at seven times one point this year. Now they're down to two—then they're down to one, now they're up to two. This is going to move around, but the reality is, two things people should really keep in focus. One is, until the inflation is out of the system, the Fed is going to be a little—very careful, and that's what they said. And then secondly, the rate we're going to go to is a rate that is more normal than pre-global financial crisis, more of a 3%, 3.5% percent rate, which actually means the American economy is probably functioning better, frankly. MARGARET BRENNAN: So on that point, the Wall Street Journal, we were reading in, puts the tariff tax increase as costing $360 billion a year. That's one of the largest tax increases in history, they say. Do you believe the administration's arguments that it's really only foreigners who are going to pay the cost of this. Do you think economists are overstating the negative impact? BRIAN MOYNIHAN: Well, I think no one really knows, honestly, because this is a different regime than we've been in before. And there's- so they're trying to extrapolate from things from 50 years ago, when economies were different structured. Our team thinks it's- has an impact on inflation of about a, you know, 30, 40 basis points— MARGARET BRENNAN: Meaning adding to prices people are paying. BRIAN MOYNIHAN: Yeah, adding to the inflation rate in the United States. But we need to back up. What the real impact right now is the new Trump administration coming in had four or five policy areas they were really going to go after, having learned in the four years, they had to move very quickly. Those were around trades and tariff, immigration and taxation and deregulation. What businesses, and I just was in the Midwest with a bunch of businesses, they're all trying to do is figure out what the answer will be so they can go ahead and make their plans for '26. So the activity that's slowed down has more to do with people just trying to figure out the answer. It doesn't mean every answer is acceptable. Most answers are. So what do they have answers on? Obviously, a tax bill getting done. That's a good answer for business, because it makes the rates permanent. What's the second thing they have an answer on. They have an answer now on the range of trade possibilities. And so as they think about the trade possibilities, they sit there and say, tariffs might not be worse than x. They see some deals getting done, all of which is good work. What they don't have an answer on is deregulation. Yes, new regulations stop, but they are hoping for more deregulation, so that will help their business models going forward. And then the last is immigration. What will immigration really settle in like. And that's what they tell us. So they're not using their lines of credit, they're not- the indications from them are they're being a little more cautious, really waiting for some answers. MARGARET BRENNAN: Businesses aren't hiring, either, we saw in this jobs data on Friday, that was the worst three months for job growth since the pandemic. Your firm, when I was reading the analysis, points to a number of different factors, and one of them is artificial intelligence and the adoption of that impacting hiring. How dramatically is it reshaping the job market? BRIAN MOYNIHAN: I think this is sort of a question of almost a glass half full, half empty type of thing. So the impact— MARGARET BRENNAN: No pun intended. BRIAN MOYNIHAN: Exactly, sorry about that. But the impact of technology on human work content as a percentage of productivity has been huge. In our company- in 2010 when I started with the management team, we had 285,000 people. We have 212,000 people today. That was the impact of technology. We're bigger, more customers, more transactions, more reports to the government, more data, et cetera. So the impact has always been huge. AI gives you a place to go that we've never been able to go before. In other words, they're jobs that take text, think about it, and produce it. Many, many jobs in a company. Our research team, now you're able to maybe use a machine to enhance that activity. So we believe that people harness AI for their benefit are going to be very successful. My teammates who harness AI for their benefit are very successful. It's nervous making for young kids now, saying, will the jobs be there for me? MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. BRIAN MOYNIHAN: Then I say, look back historically. America has a lot more people working here. And think about the amount of technology came in over the last 50 years, and we have twice as many people work in this country as we did 50 years ago, twice as many, and the population has only gone up by about a third. So think about that dynamic as it finds its way through. That's the glass half full part of it. But it will have an impact. I don't think it's impacting a lot right now, because many companies are just trying to learn how to use it. Technology has impacted, and AI gives it a place to go it hasn't gone so far. MARGARET BRENNAN: So we're talking about all the unknowns and why it's kind of hard to model things right now. Well, Friday, the President fired, as you know, the head statistician that comes up with these jobs numbers and presents them to the public. The former head during the first Trump administration came out in her defense and said this is- this is without merit, and it undermines credibility of data. Are you concerned by this firing, and do you feel there is political pressure here? BRIAN MOYNIHAN: Well, I think that's more politics. And I know I'm in Washington, DC, and that's what we're supposed to talk about-- [CROSSTALK] MARGARET BRENNAN: Government data is, is— BRIAN MOYNIHAN: but the reality is, the data— MARGARET BRENNAN: hugely important modeling BRIAN MOYNIHAN: It's 2025 MARGARET BRENNAN: as you know. [END CROSSTALK] BRIAN MOYNIHAN: It's 2025 and the data should be able to be— they use surveys and things like that, which, frankly, just aren't as effective anymore. So if you look at the rate of people who respond to their surveys, it's down from 60% level to 50% level. You know, we don't use surveys (unintelligible) we do. We watch what consumers really do. We watch what businesses really do. They can get this data, I think, other ways and I think that's where the focus ought to be. How do we get the data to be more resilient and more predictable and more understandable? Because what bounces around is restatements, and that was one of the largest restatements, going back five or seven years in the pandemic, five years in the pandemic, that creates doubt around it. And so I think the key is, let's get- let's spend some money. Let's bring the information together. Let's find where else in the government money is reported. We report millions and millions of data points to the government every day. The data is out there somewhere. MARGARET BRENNAN: Finally, back in January, you were at Davos, President Trump talked about Bank of America. TRUMP ON TAPE: Many conservatives complained that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America. This conservative- They don't take conservative business. And I don't know if the regulators mandated that because of Biden or what. MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you want to respond to the allegation that conservatives are not being allowed to do business with your bank? BRIAN MOYNIHAN: We have 70 million consumers, and we're the biggest small business lender. That's not- the issue they're focused on is the regulators impact on this industry. And you heard Senator Scott talk about this this week. This reputation, this after the fact, look, that you banked x, and now after the fact, you're gonna say x didn't turn out to be what you thought. So we look at it. We look at it based on risk. People may feel those decisions are made for some other reason, but we always make it on what's best for our company, what's best for our client. MARGARET BRENNAN: Are there industries you're uncomfortable doing business with? BRIAN MOYNIHAN: No, we do business with really-- MARGARET BRENNAN: Guns, oil and gas, tobacco, all of it? BRIAN MOYNIHAN: We do business with all those industries. Individual companies because of credit decision stuff, that's different. But the reality is, is that if they gave us clarity from the regulatory thing and avoid the second guessing, that would be helpful, and I think that's what the President was pointing out, if you listen to him. MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. Brian Moynihan, thank you for giving us some insight into the data you are seeing. Face the Nation will be back in a moment. Stay with us. Black swimmers teach others amid history of aquatic segregation In Gaza, hunger forces impossible choices as Hamas releases propaganda video of hostage Open: This is "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Aug. 3. 2025 Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
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