The Impatient Generation
Have you noticed how impatient people are these days? Or how impractical and unrealistic they are when it comes to the issue of doing what’s required to create lasting positive change? Like the guy who spent thirty years destroying his body with alcohol, excessive food, drugs and a sedentary lifestyle. He has now decided he wants to be fit, lean and healthy by next Tuesday. Not surprisingly, he gets cranky when I tell him that it might take a little longer than a week!
Or the girl who came to see me because she wants to be a professional corporate speaker. She informed me that “I’ll do whatever it takes to get there but I want to be where you are now (professionally, financially) in eighteen months”. When I asked her, “what if ‘whatever it takes’ is twenty years?”, she had no answer. Clearly, she hadn’t considered the possibility that years of learning, experience and skill development could be one of the necessary success ingredients. She wanted the results without the work. Or the time investment.
The Food Fix
Then there’s the woman who has wanted to lose weight for years. And years. She constantly sabotages her weight-loss endeavours with her need for some instant taste-bud pleasure. Hour after hour. Day after day. Despite the fact that she hates how she looks and feels, her need for instant caloric gratification keeps her trapped on the slippery slope of over-eating, self-loathing and depression. Eating gives her instant (albeit fleeting) pleasure but not eating doesn’t give her instant weight-loss, so eating it will be.
In these days of instant and immediate everything, there are still some things that simply require consistent effort and commitment over time. Maybe, a long time. Of course, this kind of thinking is not sexy enough for most people so they will continue to look for the magical shortcut.
Results without the work; seems to be a popular and contemporary concept.
