The running joke in my family is that my little brother’s First Holy Communion and high school graduation pictures were on the same roll of film.
And that she didn’t develop those pictures until he was in college.
He was 21 before he knew what he looked like as a baby..
Take a photo of any kid today and her first impulse will be to reach for the camera to see the picture on the back.
We live in an instant gratification world. Put a status on Facebook and get instant feedback. News alerts show up on our watches, phones, and iPads. Hear a song you like and instantly own it.
Remember sitting by the radio with your blank tape waiting for your favorite song to come on the radio?
And the DJ always talked through the intro. Always. It’s like he knew I was waiting for Richard Marx to come on.
We don’t have to wait for anything.
And that has made the journey with health and fitness that much more difficult. Intellectually we know that results don’t come over night. One woman said it best that she didn’t put the weight on over night, so it wasn’t going to come off over night.
Unfortunately, the intellectual knowledge that the process takes time does little to soothe us. And especially with health and fitness, it becomes very easy to question whether you're taking the right approach.
If you don't start seeing results (see Doug's post from Monday) quickly, then you assume it's time to move on to another diet or switch from P90X to Insanity. Program hopping is common because we think that the next approach will get us faster results. Not better, but faster.
Despite the advent of all things digital - despite never having to wait for another REO Speedwagon song ever again in your life - there are some things that we can’t rush.
Regardless of your choice of exercise program, the process of body recomposition and fat loss takes time.
So how do you learn patience?
Well, start by delaying some of that instant gratification. Post a Facebook status and refrain from checking every five minutes to see how many likes you got. (I'm totally guilty of this).
Take five slow deep breaths.
In meditation, everything returns to the breath. Focusing on your breathing can help bring you back into the now, into the moment, and doing so can shift your attention from what you want to where you are right now.
Slow down.
Are you Tigger? There's nothing wrong with Tigger, but you might want to tap into your inner Eyore for a few hours. Slow down. Breathe. A great way to slow down is the name five blue things in your surroundings. And then five red things. And then five white things.
Change takes time. Be patient with yourself and the process.