i is for instant gratification: prelude

So this is post that I've been avoiding for a while now, primarily because it's going to take a lot of effort to look inside and figure out what exactly I mean by the phrase "instant gratification".

Along with the definition of the term, I guess I'm afraid of how much of it I'll find in myself. 

And, considering the depth of the topic, it'll probably be split into a few parts.

The introduction (which you're reading right now), the relation to work ethic, the relation to relationships (interpersonal), the relation to life in general, and the relation to God.

To kick things off, an example from my old workplace.

At IKEA, the goal was for a customer to feel some sense of instant gratification. It was meant to work like clockwork.

1. You're at home, you look through the IKEA catalogue and see a few items that you like.
2. You drive to the big blue box that we call a store and make your way through the store, drawing inspiration for home furnishing.
3. You pick up the items yourself on the trolley, push them through the checkout and pay.
4. Arriving home, you construct the furniture and within a day go from catalogue to living room.

This isn't such a bad thing, but it's the sort of mental conditioning that makes me wonder where patience fits in, in the world today. How do we cope when we are forced to wait for something? What happens when things don't always go our way, and we don't get what we want straight away?

And beyond that, when was the last time anything required more than a passing thought / mental investment?

Whether we like it or not, a lot of the time we just pull through the day to achieve our short term goals, and sometimes sacrifice the things we'll cherish in the future.

A friend of mine planted this seed of wisdom: If there's anything worth investing in, it's the people around you.

How much have we put ahead of the things that count, for the sake of instant gratification?