Everything is instant—life isn’t

Everything is instant—life isn’t

by Anastasia Koklyagina
Associate
Commercial Real Estate Broker
CBRE

I was having a conversation with an esteemed colleague a few months ago when he said to me, “We’ve lost the ability to yearn for things.” It got me thinking about how, when we want something, it’s often only a few clicks away and delivered the very next day—and how that might have impacted us.

Over the past few decades, technology has done a remarkable job of connecting people, streamlining processes, increasing productivity and efficiency, and, more broadly, generating incredible value by reducing the effort required to produce meaningful outcomes.

I am part of the millennial generation, what I affectionately call the guinea pig generation—on which countless apps and services were tested because we were eager to try and adopt anything new. That said, I also remember life before social media, when dial-up Internet and DVD (and even VHS) rentals were the norm.

Now, this is certainly not some “back in the good old days” manifesto. I am an optimist at heart. I welcome progress and evolution, and fundamentally believe in a bright future. However, alongside all the gains in efficiency and productivity, rapid technological advancement has also created an artificial reality in which things happen quickly and predictably. The underlying rhythm of life, however, has not changed.

As a result, we often expect certain things to happen faster than they naturally can and become frustrated when they do not. But life is not Amazon Prime. “Good things take time” sounds cliché until you realize that it’s true. Whether it’s a career, a business, a family, meaningful relationships, a fitness journey, or any other worthwhile pursuit, there is no shortcut around the process.

The irony is that we’ve become remarkably efficient at saving time, yet increasingly impatient with anything that truly deserves it.

Perhaps the goal isn’t to make life faster. Perhaps it’s to become more comfortable with the pace at which meaningful things have always unfolded.

Or maybe it’s simply this: life isn’t buffering—it’s unfolding.