06 Oct Now, now
Our Sunday afternoons generally include a family walk (including our dog child, Max) to the park a block from our house. On sunny afternoons there are usually quite a few families playing soccer and on the swings and jungle gyms. A while back, a little boy was playing with his remote controlled car, the envy of all the other kids there. My son came running over to me and said “mommy, we need to buy a car like that on your computer tonight!”. Not tomorrow or for his birthday, but that very same night. A Sunday. From my computer.
This is the world we live in, this is the only world my kids know. Forgotten something on your shopping list? Order it online for delivery within an hour, rather than other trip back to the shop? Enjoying the tunes of a musician you’ve just discovered? Download their songs from iTunes in less than a minute. No need to wait until you can get to the music store to buy the CD. Feeling tired of your short bob and want long hair? No problem, get some extensions! Feel like watching a movie tonight? Stream it from Netflix or Showmax. Do video rental stores even exist anymore? So many things, available at the touch of a button, the swipe of a card, the reading of your fingerprint. It’s wonderful in so many ways – the convenience, the time saving.
The problem is that we expect everything in our lives to fall into place instantaneously. We don’t allow ourselves the space and time to learn. We don’t allow ourselves to be in our season. We don’t allow ourselves to be on the journey, but we want to just arrive at our destination at the click of our fingers. We expect the click of a button change, the within the hour delivery. Everything needs to happen now, now. We want to run a marathon tomorrow, without the months of training. We want to have the perfect summer garden, in the middle of winter! We want to have the fitness trainer abs with none of the hard work and sweat. We want the top job without the years of working our way up, being taught and mentored in each role among the way. We get frustrated with ourselves, with our families, with our colleagues, all because we’re too impatient to enjoy this time, this season.
In the constantly evolving, never-slow-down world we’re living in, there is still so much value in the journey to our goals, towards the destination we envision for our lives. It’s in the journey that we learn discipline, the power of consistency and appreciation for small wins. It’s in the journey that we learn how to face setbacks and speed bumps. It’s in the journey that we learn perseverance and build character. These are the things I want my kids to learn. Not ‘now, now’ but ‘one step at a time’.
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