How do I stay patient when my work moves so slowly?

Water and contamination move by physics, not by how badly you want the problem solved. That slowness tests you, because your intentions are urgent and the ground is indifferent to them. This is one of the hardest parts of your field: the pace is set by nature, and nature does not hurry for anyone. Patience here is not passivity or giving up. It is matching your expectations to how the world actually works. The processes you manage unfold over months and years because that is how long they physically take. Fighting that in your mind does not move a single molecule faster. It only leaves you frustrated at reality for being real. So shift your sense of progress to the right timescale. Measure your work in the terms the work actually runs on, not in how fast you wish it went. Do your part diligently, mark the slow gains as the real progress they are, and let the physics do what physics does. Your intentions still matter. They just express themselves through patient, steady work rather than speed.