We live in a time where we tend to need instant gain. We want to go to the gym for two days and stand on the scale looking for results. We want to start the job today and look for growth within three months. We want academic qualifications, without experience and demand high earning salaries without practical application or experience. There is a term that has constantly been bubbling over in recent years and that is ENTITLEMENT.
There is an unspoken expectation that we have from society. This is without due diligence, work, and effort. We look over our shoulders into the lives of other people and expect the same, without insight on the journey or the work put in.
In the modern day, we have become accustomed to a culture of “now”. This has stemmed from the revolution of the internet. As time has progressed, we came from slow operating computers to processors that process data at rapid speed.
From a time when you had to send a hand-written letter, find an envelope, place in the said envelope, drive to a post office, stand in a line to buy a stamp, post the letter and have the letter take days or months depending the distance to reach the recipient and have the process repeated by the recipient to revert back. We are now in an age where the same process of sending a message is done at the click of a bottom to your email and another click of a button to send, and in an instant, your recipient can receive your email. Social media has allowed us to seek validation from strangers, we no longer need to work on friendships in our everyday lives, which require physically being present, we can now send instant messaging to our companions and this will be deemed friendship.
We can then meet up every other week and catch up and be on our way. We can warm our food up at a click of a button and we can order a cab at another click of a button. Everything is instant, everything is fast, and everything is now. This mentality has translated into our daily lives, and we have developed the same mentality in our careers. We now want the education system to narrow its time spent studying, we want to have job positions that require skills and expertise, now and we want our lives to depict what we see in magazines and online. We daily read stories of young billionaires, we read stories of groundbreaking discoveries by 21-year old’s, and we want the same now. We want everything faster, easier and instantly with a sprinkle of entitlement on it.
Without due diligence, without the hard work, and without the effort. We have developed an unrealistic view and approach to time. We no longer want to invest the time needed to master a skill and become an expert to avail us the job position we want or the life we aim to achieve. There remains nothing wrong with having high expectations or dreams to which you set time frames. It, however, remains important to be realistic in your approach. To ground yourself and apply the hard work required to attain your dreams. It means shedding the aura and mentality of entitlement. It means understanding that the world owes you nothing and working for everything, you want. It means going the extra mile, it means putting in the time and it means being patient with yourself.
Take the volunteering job to gain more skills. Take the extra task that no one wants at work to better your skills. Take the time to read up on your field. Take time out to learn your trade and do the work. No short cuts. No instant gratification. No entitlement. No impatience. Just work. Pure, hard work.
With Love, Mavis
*Mavis Braga Elias is a Civil Engineer by qualification and a Marketing Officer by profession. A philanthropist of heart and founder of the EM Love Foundation. She won the Vivid Philanthropist award in 2015 and the Queens Leaders Awards 2018. Find her on Twitter-@mavisbraga