Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Impatient nation

I want to share a CNN article with you today entitled, "U.S. is an impatient nation, poll finds". Here's an excerpt:
An Associated Press poll has found an impatient nation. It's a nation that gets antsy after five minutes on hold on the phone and 15 minutes max in a line. So say people in the survey.

The Department of Motor Vehicles, the U.S. version of the old Soviet bread line, is among the top spots where Americans hate to wait. But grocery stores are the worst.

Almost one in four in the AP-Ipsos poll picked the grocery checkout as the line where their patience is most likely to melt like the ice cream turning to goo in their cart.

And it seems people don't mellow with age. The survey found older people to be more impatient than younger people.

Nor does getting away from the urban pressure cooker make much difference. People in the country and the suburbs can bear a few more minutes in a line before losing it than city inhabitants can, but that's it.

In short, Americans want it all NOW. Or awfully close to now.
...
Overall, 60 percent in the survey said they can usually wait no more than 15 minutes in a line before losing their cool.

Their fuses are even shorter on the phone.

Nearly four in five respondents in the survey said their patience has run out while being kept on hold.

Now you know this impatience is not good for us! Do remember that meditation is wonderfully effective for cultivating patience. Not only do we simply become more willing to wait after we become meditators, we actually have something to do when we're not able to escape waiting. We can meditate during that time. If you use a mantra or a memorized visualization as a support for meditation you can practice easily while waiting in line or on hold. I recommend it.

No comments:

Post a Comment

New policy: Anonymous posts must be signed or they will be deleted. Pick a name, any name (it could be Paperclip or Doorknob), but identify yourself in some way. Thank you.