The State of Now

I recently stumbled on a video by Simon Sinek, where he talked about the wide spread of instant gratification promoted through fast food, social media etc while building deep relationships, patience and consistently working to make an impact is frowned upon and just plain frustrating.

In as much as technology has made life wayyyyy easier, we simply do not know how to wait anymore, we want it and we want it now!!!!! 

Just the same way you want to know the end purpose of this article and you want to know it now!!! Patience my friend, patience :-). 

The sad thing is how fast we run through life; no time to slow down and smell the roses (come to think of it, I cannot remember the last time I saw an actual rose flower and no, I am not referring to the pretty one included in my phone's emoticon..lol).

As I listened to the video, I felt guilty as I also have fallen within the "State of Now" group. I realized that I even find it hard to wait for a page on the Internet to open without feeling the need to distract myself with another activity. We call it multitasking, I call it impatience and the sad thing is how we end up not enjoying either activity as we end up giving half of our most likely further divided attention to both activities (thank you social media!!!) and then once the high of the pursuit is done, off we go searching for a new high.

The rat race sure does goes on.

It explains the high rate of divorce, suicide and pretty much the high level of stress we move around with and this made me wonder; what happened to those good ol' days of patiently waiting for NTA (Nigerian Television Authority) to graciously show us those beautiful lines at exactly 4:00pm and then further test our patience with the National Anthem with really loud drums before we can finally!!!! settle down and get to watch the programs scheduled for that day.

Now talk about being taught how to be patient on a daily basis and you know what?? We were fine with waiting probably because our options were close to non-existent or simply because we knew what was on the other side of those annoying colorful lines (kids in the 90s will mostly likely be nodding right now..lol) was simply worth the wait. 

So what changed???? 

To many options?

To many distractions?

Just like you, I will ponder on the answer as soon as I am done checking my Instagram page while typing this article and watching a movie...lol *runs away in shame*.

On a serious note though, after watching the video referred to above, I decided to start learning how to be patient through basic things such as patiently waiting on a pretty long queue without stretching my neck to see if my long lost primary school mate is in front of me so I can move forward with a huge smile and say "hey, how have you been?" while I stylishly squeeze myself into the front line hoping no one notices or simply waiting patiently in traffic without feeling the need to smile while mouthing the words "Oga, no vex make I enter your front" while I gently squeeze in again. 

Let's see how I do with those basic steps. 

Hey, don't judge!!! it is better than nothing, what about you what do you plan on doing to learn how to develop more patience and savor everything going around you instead of daily putting your life on fast and furious mode?.  

I would love to hear from you!!! 

#Smile