Losing track of time

This quote stuck out at me the other day:

There is a natural progression in life, which everyone knew intimately back in the days when we were an agrarian society. You plant, then you cultivate, and finally you harvest. Plant,
cultivate, harvest.

In today’s world, everyone wants to go directly from plant to harvest. We plant the seed by joining the gym, and then get frustrated when a few days go by and there’s no fitness harvest. Taking recreational drugs is an effort to go from plant directly to harvest. So is taking steroids to enhance athletic performance. So is robbing a bank; so is playing the lottery.
The step we keep overlooking (and overskipping!) is the step of cultivating. And that, unlike planting and harvesting, takes place only through the patient dimension of time.
Because we are a culture raised on television and movies, we’ve lost track of time. We don’t understand time any more.

The Slight Edge – Jeff Olson

So often I forget that things are supposed to take time. I look at friends and colleagues who are 10 years older than me and think I should be in the same position. I forget that they got there by putting in their dues… No matter how much we want to lose weight, make money, or progress, very little can be done right now to get us to our end goal. It takes time and lots of little actions to get us there.