Instant Gratification

I'm a very impatient person. When I want something, I want it now. I don't know if it's my personality or if I'm just a product of my generation but that's how I feel. In this society, we've grown accustomed to getting things in the blink of an eye, or the click of a mouse usually. Cell phones have made it easier to get in contact with people so we can get the answers to our most important questions answered immediately. Like, "what's for dinner?" or "what are you wearing?". We can google almost anything and have an answer before you can say "google". We can take a picture and upload it and send it all over the world in seconds. It's what the world's grown into and we've all gotten so used to it that we expect it in every aspect of our lives.

Weight loss, for instance. I don't want to have to sacrifice my time or my pleasure to work out and eat healthy. I'm one of those people who goes for a walk and then goes home and looks in the mirror to see if I look skinnier yet. I weigh myself every morning to see if, by eating really healthy the day before, I've lost any weight. I want to swim a couple of laps in the pool and emerge with a long and lean swimmer's body. If I cut out carbs for the day I expect my cellulite to magically disappear. It's probably why weight loss is so hard for me. When I don't see immediate results from the hard work I put in, I give up and go back to my unhealthy ways.

Tanning is another area that I could use some instant gratification. It's freaking hot outside- even in the pool. I don't want to lay around all day to get some sun. Don't start, I know it's unhealthy... blah, blah, blah. I expect, after a half hour or so, to step out of the pool looking like Giselle Bundchen. Don't get me started on spray on tans either. They do not look the same. I don't care how many magazines say the look is natural- it's not. It might fool someone on a corn field in Iowa but us Florida girls know what a real tan looks like.

Then there is the corporate ladder. Who wants to start at the bottom and work their way up? Not me, I want to be the boss from the beginning! I want the big salary and the stock options and the big office. I want the option to take long lunches and skip out early on Fridays. Don't get me wrong, I'm willing to work but I want to work according to my rules, not someone else's.

The list goes on and on. We want our fast food faster, I get mad if a restaurant doesn't have a drive through, we Tivo TV shows so we can fast forward through all the fluff and get to the good stuff, we don't want to buy a whole CD we only want to download the songs we want.... And it's probably only going to get worse. How can you blame me for wanting "it" and wanting it now? It's what I was raised to do. I sound like one of the kids from My Super Sweet Sixteen or the girl from Willy Wonka, "Daddy I want a golden goose". How can I stop feeling this way? How can I go back to the old way of working hard to get what I want? How can I be happy doing that? They say patience is a virtue but this world is teaching us to be inpatient. And I'm right here, tapping my foot while looking at my watch waiting for it to change.