Instant Gratification

This afternoon, I emailed someone about when I can expect some paperwork to be ready. I then checked my email about every 2 minutes until I realized that I don’t need to know this second. Why do I feel the need for instant gratification?

We live in a time when we expect to know answers right away (I google everything on my phone). We expect people to drop what they are doing and email/text us back right away. And, we feel like we need to do the same.

My husband constantly asks me to put down my phone when we are hanging out. I’m not sure why I need to know right now if I have any new emails (mostly spam by the way), but I check anyway.

I heard some good advice the other day. Someone said that if we get an email or a question about something, wait till we have time to think about the response before responding. If we are distracted by life (kids, dogs, spouses, stress from work), then we aren’t able to respond in the best way possible. This is so true. It also makes me rethink  how I am living my life every day.

I feel like we are constantly distracted.

We no longer make the time to fully commit to a conversation or an activity because our minds are in a million other places. Instead of sitting with my son and watching the same Paw Patrol episode I have watched a million times before, I’m busy checking Facebook. I justify it by telling myself that I’m not missing anything because I’ve seen this episode over and over, but what am I gaining by scrolling through my Facebook news feed? You know what I’m missing? Time with my son.

Let’s bring it back to the instant gratification discussion. We are constantly looking for feedback on everything. We want to see how many likes our latest post has gotten, how many readers are visiting our new blog (*wink wink*) or if someone has immediately responded to our text message. And, we want it now. But, this is because our priorities have shifted and our ability to gauge what is important has also shifted.

I should feel instantly gratified by the fact that my son and I are sharing 15 minutes watching his favorite TV show. Why does that not give me the same high as a new “like” on Instagram? I should enjoy the debate about what America’s favorite food is (Anyone see that episode of How I Met Your Mother? You need to check it out.), instead of looking it up and then not having anything else to talk about. I should enjoy putting 100% into the task at hand instead of halfheartedly doing it because I’m distracted by a million other things.

It’s time to shift our priorities and our expectations. We need to learn to find gratification in the hear and now. We need to put down our phones, stop checking our messages and take in what is truly important. The other stuff can wait.