Monday, January 11, 2010

Spontaneity

It has been more than seven years since Impulse Research Corp. released their study that found 78% of Americans crave more spontaneity in their lives. I have run across this statistic multiple times, most recently Sunday afternoon.

I'm guessing it's still pretty accurate, although the percentage may have increased.

If people really want spontaneity, why is it that it's hard to find someone to have lunch with on the spur of the moment? Lunch seems like a pretty minor investment of time and energy. If we can't be spontaneous on this level, how can we hope to do much more?

I've noticed it's often not an appointment that keeps people from being spontaneous, but some internal principle of what they "should" do. "Should" can include everything from mowing the lawn to washing the car, but it's rarely something that has to be done right then. So, some of these same people craving spontaneity are choosing to devote their time to chores that could be done anytime, instead of calling someone out of the blue to have some fun.

It's a good time to do something different, to be spontaneous.