Everyone is looking for a shortcut

I've recently become more aware of how urgently and easily everyone wants things. This became very obvious to me in the gym a couple of weeks back. While getting changed I overheard two men speaking about their efforts in the gym. They could only have been in their late teens or maybe early twenties yet they were talking about how "no one trains like us" and how they're finally getting the "gains" they deserved. Initially I felt somewhat inspired by their passion, it's rare to find younger adults who outwardly care about things. That inspiration was cast away shortly afterwards when one admitted that he could eat whatever he wants because "it'll just go straight to my muscles, I'm on Tren". For those who don't know, "Tren" (Trenbolone) is an anabolic steroid used as for muscle growth in livestock, although it's also used by bodybuilders for the same benefit. Trenbolone has never been approved for human use, is incredibly dangerous and is a banned substance in most professional sports.

For people aged somewhere between 18 and 23, the use of Tren symbolises far more than a desire for muscle growth. If you speak to people in your local gym, the vast majority of people with a reasonable muscle mass will say that they have been training for over 3 years. In fact, if you go to the biggest men and women, they typically been training for over 10 years. So thinking back to my young gym colleagues, it's almost impossible for them to have trained for long enough to see any true muscle building benefits of the gym before taking the "shortcut" of steroids.

The second part of this overheard conversation plunged my faith in humanity down another level as one asked the other "have you been able to withdraw that money yet? Trust me, this guy is legit and we can start earning £80-100 a day, guaranteed". I was intrigued by this; who is this man that can guarantee money? And why does he need money to give you that guarantee? As I listened on it became clear that he was talking about day trading and the initial money needed was to join a group chat of "traders" given tips on what to buy and when. I'll let you be the judge of whether day trading in the stock market can give "guaranteed returns, daily" as had been advertised to these young men, I'm more focused on the underlying sentiment. These men had no ambition of learning the process for themselves, they simply wanted someone to text them when they needed to do something so all they had to do was execute a command. While this seems great when delivered under the guise of "guaranteed returns", imagine a life constantly waiting for the next "buy" message, always waiting for someone else to trigger your next action. They thought they were running their own life because they wouldn't be working for a company, but in truth they were simply passing over their life for someone else to control.

I'm not writing this from my ivory tower, overlooking all these naive youngsters falling foul of a system they were brought into. I'm also guilty of wanting to take the shortcut. With modern day life meaning we can access almost anything within 24 hours (or less), the ability to plan, check details and structure your life has been diminished. Forgot a family members birthday? That's okay, Amazon will deliver the present tomorrow morning, gift wrapped. Can't be bothered to cook dinner? There's a plethora of food outlets just waiting for you to place an order. Don't want to leave the house to collect the food? Luckily there's a bunch of apps that will dispatch a person to deliver your fast food to the front door. We're building a society that values convenience more than anything else, akin to the humans seen in the movie Walle, if you don't want to get up, you don't have to. Everything will come to you, for the right price.

What is becoming forgotten in our lives? Delayed Gratification. Since we are able to retrieve anything we desire in a matter of minutes or hours, our ability to await results is hindered. When we start a new hobby we must excel immediately or it never gets touched again. When we do something challenging we must treat ourselves like our dogs and have an immediate reward. Difficult things don't always produce immediate impact. As mentioned above, training a gym can take years of consistent training to see big changes in your body. Becoming a professional athlete doesn't happen in a week, it takes years of training. Were you able to perfectly manoeuvre a car during your first driving lesson? No, it took time, and repeated practice.