Last week one of my staff members was laughing about an experience she had at her best friend’s house. She was talking about how she had gone over to help her pal get some furniture rearranged and one of the pieces was an old drawer designed to hold vinyl LP record albums.
Her children and her friend’s children were there to “help” and they wanted to relocate the record albums to a new piece of furniture her friend had just bought. The kids were looking at the albums and asked if they could play one of the Kiss ones.
It was a live album, and the moms agreed that yes, this was good chore music. Once the album started to play, though, one of the kids asked, “How do we skip to ‘Beth’?” He was holding the remote to the whole-house stereo, to which they had hooked the record player.
The 2 friends apparently laughed and at the same time said, “You don’t on a record. Just listen to all the songs, okay?” The kids were stunned and I guess just looked at each other like, “This does not compute…I have to WAIT for the song?”
Now those of us who remember those old records know that you can lift the needle manually and count over the number of rings to locate the right song…but this also causes a risk of scratching the record, so they didn’t want to risk it and have the kids fiddling with it. Their response was, “suck it up and wait.”
But it brings up a good point, and one that we see played out every day in the grown up world…the development of technology has kind of plunked us into a place where not only do we hate to wait for something, we can’t even sometimes grasp the idea that we HAVE to wait.
We get emails all the time…frequently multiple emails…from people who might not have received an immediate answer, and sent email after email after email. While my staff tries pretty hard to get to all the many email issues we receive in a timely way, we are all still humans answering the questions and that actually takes time.
Sometimes I can hear someone say, ‘well poor thing…no wonder you have a blood pressure problem’ in a sympathetic and knowing way as they respond to the flood from just one person.
The anxiety that comes with the state of being called ‘Impatience’ is one that is really hard to overcome. In fact, it’s the very anxiety that can only be cured by stamping down the reflex of impatience.
I am as guilty as others sometimes. If I email staff and need a response to something, I like to know the answer right away. And it’s the primary reason that all my programs are offered electronically…so my clients can have the download instantly.
But when we immerse ourselves into the culture of instant gratification, it becomes more of a disease than anything else…instant-gratification-itis.
The symptoms of this disease are anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure, irritability, and headaches. Add to that the indirect symptoms that arise from poor judgment such as erratic driving and relationship sabotage and you have the makings of a very unhealthy life, indeed.
The test for this disease is simple. Pick what you would consider to be the busiest time of day and sit in a chair for 15 minutes, doing nothing during that time. Turn off the ringers on the phones and ignore the emails.
Don’t answer the knock at the office door, and leave the mess on the counter at home.
Can’t do it? Then you have it, bad.
Or maybe you can’t do it because others around you are afflicted and you are experiencing co-lateral damages.
The point to all this is that while gadgets, time-saving innovations, and increases in posted speed limits have their merits, they also are a hindrance to those struggling with a patience problem. They are the “enablers” of those addicted to “instant.”
Like I said earlier, I totally get it about the workflow thing, and wanting to maximize efficiency. I like a smooth, streamlined process as much as the next guy. However, I do also try to be wary of my own state of being and if I see myself getting frustrated at the computer because the page doesn’t load before I even click the button…it’s time for a focused break.
Your break might be 15 minutes of watching the birds out your office window. It might be deep breathing or a meditation in the morning to start your day.
Or, you might be using the Hypertension No More exercises to train your body to stop craving “instant” and become stronger and more patient.
Whatever tool you decide to use, the important thing is to find one and be consistent. Then you too can reach the level of peace that my staff member and her friend seem to enjoy and be able to listen to the whole album without searching for the fast forward button.
I encourage you to have a look at the natural method to eliminate high blood pressure. And coming soon, I will have an iPhone/Android App that you can use, too. After all…we can’t cure the need for instant gratification overnight. We might as well use technology to help us reach our patience goal!
Warm regards,
Christian Goodman
El331005
Great article. My greatest challenge is “patience”
We know this and should be doing it,but it is nice to hear it so we can really make sure we are doing it!
Good luck with your blog. Impatience is not a problem for me, as at 83 I am very happy to just wait and welcome whatever comes along.
Your article was so timely…Impatience is my middle name…..two weeks ago I ended up in the hospital with 238/117 blood pressure. The culprit was having my house torn up for two weeks to do a job that should have been done in no more than three days….I do not like disarray when it comes to my house so I paid the price by spending 5 days in the hospital.
Makes sense and thank you Christian.
This is SO true!!! I love this article. I am generally a patient person at heart and even with CDs and MP3s, I still listen to the whole thing. I do not usually get upset when I have to wait for things or wait on line, BUT technology and society really do affect one’s nature, and there are times when I succumb to the elements around me. It does get to me when it seems people take advantage of me just be cause I do not complain and moan like the others.
Most of all, impatience plays the enemy at work. My bosses want everything yesterday, and so I have to provide it in the given time frame which inevitably leads to…impatience!!!
I blame my borderline high blood pressure which was diagnosed last year, at least 80% on my corporate job environment, because frankly speaking I never experienced stress as I have in the corporate world. Especially since the economy tanked.
I’d like to post a link to this article on my blog. It is both pertinent and timely.
Thanks all the good work.
I’m caught in this instant gratification world too because my grand children are living it every day.It’s brutal.They don’t know how to be in a quiet moment..They get anxious ..Usually when they come to visit it takes a couple of days for them to wind down. I’m in a dead zone ,no cell service..But they bring their computers …so there still contact with the outside world (more like the inside world)nobody goes outside anymore .They are 14 and 15..if that should explain .Just watching .. them trying to cope gives me blood pressure issues .I can see them having high blood pressure before their 20.
redbob