Ah, one Monday morning challenge resolved.  Someone had not registered my modem with Comcast and it was working off a ’static IP’ something, somewhere!

Back to sharing what I discovered about my Monday morning ‘blahs’! 

Let me preface by saying that I am a pre-boommer baby and grew into young adulthood during the idyllic 50s and 60s!  Life in small town Indiana was nearly perfect.  The “war to end all wars” was behind us, major crime was almost unheard of, ‘dinnertime’ was leisurely and full of communcation about the day’s activities as well as plans for the future, etc., etc.  If you grew up in small town America and the same or similar vintage as me - you know of what I speak.

Then along came change!  It is, we know, inevitable!  Change that is.

As the years flew by, the world, culture, society and life in general took on exponential character.  And without even noting, I accommodated to a whole new way of viewing life and what life offers.

I call it the “McDonald’s Mentality”!  “Fast-food everything!”

Suddenly what never bothered me before became such a source of irritation as to make me utter exemplatives if it took more than 5 minutes from order to delivery.  While tapping my fingers on the steering wheel, I would look at my watch and instead of using the wait-time productively - I’d count the number of minutes it took to get whatever ‘cherished’ item I ordered.

The late Edwin Friedman (”FAILURE OF NERVE - Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix”) laments the change that occurred about the same time fast food became the nation’s “McDonald’s obsession”.  I haven’t completed his work, but the title says it all - at least for me.

They say that patience comes with the maturing process and well it should, I guess.  But some days I think it’s going the other way for me!

Okay enough digression, Fitzgerald!  Why the “Monday Blahs”?

I want instant success!  Pure and simple - that’s it!  I salve my conscience by saying, “well doesn’t everybody?”

Of course, we all want success (whatever that means to each of us) to come without the 5 minute wait process.

And it’s worse for those of us who carry the ‘visionary gene’!  We see the end that we desire often before the beginning.  Or we see the end and know how to get going, but loose our “nerve” when the desired ending doesn’t show itself in 5 minutes or less!

Now tell me, isn’t McDonald’s responsible for this.  I mean, can’t I hold them accountable for my mental shift from patient process to instant gratification?  After all, we all know that “instant gratification” is a function of youth!

I passed youthood, chronologically speaking, sometime during the mid-years of the last millennium, so I should now be a mature adult who can wait for the process to (1) take hold, (2) begin unfolding, (3) move forward, and (4) become the rhythm that spells success according to my dreams, my vision, my goals!

‘Ain’t’ so, my friends!  I want it NOW!

I mean I want to see that it’s coming (another challenge for us who are motivated by the prophetic or the need to know).  In fact, my prayers are pretty petty and childish these days!  Instead of practicing ‘gratitude’ on a grand scale, I mouth a few words about being grateful for the ‘wait process’ and then move into ’strength words’ (otherwise referred to as ‘making demands’) or ‘worry words‘, and finally what I call the ‘oh woe is me’ words!

It’s not that I want a Mercedes now or a villa on the Sorrentine Peninsula of Italy now or someother ‘jet-set’ desire.  Nothing so grand as that!

I want growth in our AWP community to come quicker!  It’s as simple as that! 

I want it to come while waiting 5 minutes or less in the line at McDonald’s.  ‘Wha-la’, I placed my order and ‘bingo’, it’s at the window around the corner - served hot and now!

Instant success!  No waiting for the process to take hold.  It’s all inside brewing in fancy modern equipment and the desired outcome better take only 5 minutes from order to delivery! 

Or I’m fuming!

See how subtle the change that accounts for this morning’s ‘Monday Blahs’?  See how infected we’ve become by the “fast food” mentality? 

After all, if hamburgers, fries and rich hot brewed  coffee can be served up with split-second timing - why can’t the successful conclusion of what is our fondest hopes and dreams?

Doesn’t work that way. 

And all the pat platitudes that people of faith (and I’m one of them) hand out like tracks, don’t ease the mental pain of one who waits.  One who taps the steering wheel, glances angrily at her watch, and fumes with the wait!

Yes, I know great things take time.  But if ‘Mickey D’s’ can do it in record time - why can’t it be done everywhere in life!!!

So, Monday ticks away and I continue to look for the answers to the challenge presented by what seems like illusive success.  Reminding myself of all those pat platitudes that I’ve heard over the years in an effort to rise out of the Monday blahs like the “Phoenix Rising”.

Did I ‘publish’ to all of you in earlier posts on discovery a ‘warning’ that “discovery will lead to a positive outcome, but first, it may make you miserable”!

If I didn’t, I should have!

You know, I feel better just having acknowledged - publicly - my Monday mood.  And I hope that in so doing, it strkes a cord in you that lights the ‘bulb’ of wisdom that reminds - “the power is in the process”!

The good news is I just accomplished goal “1″ for the morning. 

Maybe it’s time for a McD’s break!

Have an AWESOME Monday!

  Linda