(Instant) Gratification

I know that the following has been said enough times to make it an annoying cliche, but it doesn't make it any less true.

We live in an age of instant gratification.

This certainly impacts every single part of our lives. From the food we eat (microwaves), the entertainment we seek (Netflix, anyone?), to the communication we rely on (I get upset when my Skype lags or it takes a while to send a text...), we have become accustomed to fulfilling our desires with speed and ease.

And I realized today that this new journey I'm on cannot be about the instant. If I focus on the immediate, I am guaranteed to be frustrated. Here are the things I want right now, along with what I need to settle for:

1. To run a sub-10 minute mile. Instead of this, I should probably focus on getting really good at the pace I'm at, to the point where it's not a workout anymore... and then stepping it up.

2. To run a sub-30 minute 5K. I should probably settle for running a 5K at all, right?

3. To fit into a size 8. I'll go ahead and settle for a size 16 at this point :)

4. To weigh 135 pounds. This is... fairly far away.

As my dad said tonight, "Who needs instant gratification? I'll settle for plain gratification any day." And if in a year I've come close to accomplishing some of these goals, I will certainly feel gratified.

P.S. I'm using my parents' computer, and Internet Explorer doesn't have spell check. Who made it through this entire post without a misspelling? Yeah, I'm fantastic.