THE TREADMILL TRAP: Keeping Up With The Speed Of Change

THE TREADMILL TRAP: Keeping Up With The Speed Of Change
By
William Cottringer, Ph.D.

What is faster than a nanosecond? Whatever it is, it is upon us! Right at this moment I am both crying and laughing about the impact of Karl Fish’s “Shift Happens” I-Net and U-tube “Fishbowl: Did You Know?” hit. Back in the late sixties, Alvin Toffler, in his book “Future Shock,” tried to warn us about total overload and speed of change that was coming from the computer age. His predictions were amazingly accurate and descriptive of what is actually going on today.

In 1969 I wrote my first “book” which was really a graduate research project evaluating the country’s first prison pre-release program. The idea was a sensible one—that prisoners who had been locked up for many years, should be brought up to date about all the changes they missed during their incarceration. The hoped-for outcome was to increase chances for law-biding survival on the streets and reduce recidivism.

In developing this program, I was concerned about closing the gap between what the inmates knew and what I knew they needed to know to make this successful transition. Oddly, one of my main premises was that we all needed to slow down and smell the roses before the scent was lost. Things were already moving too fast.

Imagine being worried about the pre-computer speed of life back in the sensual sixties? Maybe that was just an affliction writers have to endure—sensing great problems ahead of time so they can help prepare some sensible solutions from personal experience grappling with practical problems firsthand. Will Schutz, one of the early leaders of the human potential movement, was always worried about developing his solutions and then having to apply his own best advice in his own life.

Here are ten sensible ways to wrap your arms around the tons and miles of information overload and see past the blur from the treadmills that need unplugging. Treadmills were a good invention to allow indoor exercise, but nowadays they are only widening the gap between where we are and were we need to be in all areas of life—mentally, emotionally, physically, vocationally and spiritually.

1. FOCUS ON PURPOSE. There is so much to know and do today and not enough time to accomplish either very well. The question of the day is, “Where do I start?” Actually it doesn’t matter where you start as long as you honestly and clearly know why you are trying to do what it is you are trying to do. And, the right answer is a sensible, “naked” one that doesn’t raise more questions than it answers, or you won’t get the desired results, having to start over again and wasting valuable time.

2. GET TO THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE. What is the right perspective? Having he right perspective involves knowing the importance of where (location) and when (time) you are doing your looking and what you “see.” A right perspective is usually one of balance between extremes where you have more options, and leaning in the direction of being optimistic about a positive outcome, which has a better chance of getting one. A few times it may involve knowing when to let go, close your eyes, hold your breath and jump in with all fours.

3. EMPTY YOUR MENTAL TOOLBOX. Wow, that sounds rather foolish! But not really. You can’t keep up with the speed of change trying to reapply all your obsolete knowledge and solutions, let alone make room for learning new things that can help shorten the gap between what you know and what you need to know. This is so you can increase brain space to master surviving and eventually catch up to the thriving success shadow-makers.

4. CORRECT WRONG PERCEPTIONS. Inaccurate and incomplete perceptions you may have about the quality of realities around you can just serve to widen the gap between what you know and can do and what you need to know and do to keep up with the speed of change. So can wrong perceptions you have of other people and those they may have of you. The best start is to find out what the most harmful wrong perceptions are and do what you can to improve them.

5. COLLECT PRINCIPLES. Since no one today can possible keep up with everything worth knowing, it makes most sense to look for the most important governing “laws” or principles that influence how things work best. Then you can apply tried and true “cures” to problems in many different settings and get maximum results. Note that all these ten suggestions are really examples of such principles for dealing with the speed of change.

6. AVOID POLARIZATIONS. Ironically the human brain, in its attempt to keep up with the speed of change, divides up everything into simple either-or categories to remember and deal with easier and more efficiently like yes or no, up or down, true or false, good or bad, useful or useless, etc. The trouble is that such artificial, over-simplified polarizations wastes valuable time getting past them in order to get a more correct and complete perception of the things you are trying to stop, re-arrange or otherwise improve. You can’t change what you don’t understand. Anything can be both a gift and curse taken to its extreme.

7. FOCUS ON THE RIGHT PRIORITIES. You are not likely to be able to juggle several priorities at once, at least effectively these days. This is because you are worrying about all the others in the waiting. It may be a good time to pause and focus on the real priorities of your life, work, relationships and rest time, which can contribute most to helping you avoid the treadmill trap and actually help you get to where you are trying to go. A good start is to question the normal order in which you approach something.

8. COLLABORATE. There is no longer s single person who knows it all as the smartest one on the block. If there was a time we all needed to share our secrets and suspicions as to how to be more successful in keeping up with the speed of change that is only going to get faster, it is now. Ironically, several years have already passed, from the release of a good book by Eckhart Tolle entitled, “The Power of Now.”

9. INVENT “P” POINTS. “P” Points are one fantastic time management tool you need to have in your toolbox if you are to become master of the clock instead of its slave. “Psychological Power Points,” or just “P” Points for short, are the little, but well-timed and well-placed actions you can do to get the biggest results with the least side effects. Start your invention process by slowing down on your day of rest (below) and notice what you have been failing to notice all along—the connection between your thoughts and feelings and the results they are getting you.

10. REST FROM THE STRESS. We have to take at least one day off during the week—no homework, no housework, no yard work, no work—to rest and relax peacefully from all the changes, chaos and stress. The distress from our current speed of life can literally be a killer and it is simply not worth that dreadful outcome or you will never have enough time to do what needs to be done! Someone once reminded me not to take life too seriously because after all, nobody gets away from it alive.

Practice 1-3 of these suggestions and close your gap by a third. Try 4-6 and get twice as much done in half the time. Implement 7 or more and have more time for fun than you will know what to do with!