Instant Gratification

​Instant Gratification
I was on automatic pilot.  Just doing what I do with music playing.  Today I was listening to a song I have heard many, many times before.  But one verse said something I have never heard until this morning.
“In time we’ll turn this place around.”  One of the reasons that blew me away is it is so contrary to the age I live in.  I am in an instant gratification age.  I want it and I want it now.
To me it is good to want a good thing in a hurry, but I do not know that getting it just because I want it, but do not have what I need for it, is a good thing.  That is like “hang the debt, you want it, have it.”  I think this thinking manifests itself in credit cards and services like after pay.  The thinking seems to be “it does not matter that you cannot afford it, have it and deal with the debt later.”
I am thinking of the contestants in Miss World.  So often they would say they want “world peace.”  The way I see it if world peace was monetarized and up to an individual, they could put it on the credit card.  A person could forget the work and forget the growth and individual changes needed.  I would have what I want.
The movie Bruce Almighty would not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I really feel it made a valid point.  In it Morgan Freeman gave his job (being God) to Jim Carrey.  Jim Carrey received a great many requests to win the lottery.   It was all too much so he granted everyone their request.  Later scenes showed the riots that resulted from everyone getting what they wanted at once.
Wanting a good thing is a good thing.  Trying to take short cuts to get it I have found is fraught.  I have always found that in time I get what I want, and if I don’t, did I really need it after all?
Getting something immediately via short cuts may be gratifying, but there is always a price to pay.  That price is always more than what it was originally.  Taking the long way is harder but it is more satisfying.  For me it alleviates things hanging over my head.
This thinking may not cover every scenario, but it does cover most.  A friend of mine would save to take the family camping once a year.  Maybe that does not compare to staying at a five-star resort, but it meant nothing was hanging over the head and a wonderful time was had.
“In time we’ll turn this place around.”  It may take effort.  It may mean using what resources are available now.  It may not happen straight away, but it will happen.  When I am looking back rather than forward, I know I will be pleased I did not take short cuts, and will be content rather than stressed.