Two Ice Cubes Please

Over the multitude of decades, we have transitioned into an age of instant gratification. The old adages of “good things come to those who wait” or “fine wine isn’t made in a day” and countless others have seemed to have been forgotten.  This I think, is a side effect of our enhanced connectivity to each other by way of our advancing technologies.

Children today will never experience the buildup of anticipation for Saturday morning cartoons like in the sixties and seventies as this has been replaced by the instant access of cartoons twenty four hours a day via a multitude of cartoon networks on TV or the internet.  Gone are the days you wrote a letter to a friend or a distant family member and waited patiently for weeks (sometimes months) for a reply. No longer do we need to wait for the appropriate season to get our favourite fruit or vegetables nor do we have to trek to the store with our film and wait a week or so to have it processed into pictures. With Amazon Prime, I can have almost anything I desire at my door within a day or two. I can only reference the past forty years or so, but if you had this conversation with someone in their seventies or eighties, they could give even more examples. This exciting time of globalization has definitely enhanced our lives but we as a society have, to a degree, lost that ability to invest in the long term. 

Recently, as part of one of my personal requirements, I have been learning to run.  I have never been a runner, nor do I overly enjoy it, however I do understand its benefits and do appreciate the achievements associated with it.  I am working towards a 10K run and my training hasn’t been going too bad, however I found myself rushing it. I am lacking patience.  Although I started training only a few weeks ago, I found that I wasn’t sticking to my program, I kept pushing it to go further and faster.  Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing to a degree, but I have found this has actually slowed my progress down.  Too much, too soon creates injuries and takes away from the “enjoyment”.  Patience is a virtue, and although I can’t run 10K today or tomorrow, with slow and steady progress, I will, someday.

Like we have often heard, you can only climb a mountain one step at a time and I know I need to invest time and energy over the long term for long term goals.  I will run 10k, I will savour the wait and the anticipation, however in other areas, I will enjoy instant gratification, and I will continue to get two ice cubes in my coffee because I want to drink it now.

Thanks for reading.

Mike Kohut