O.K. So today’s posting is inspired a little by the TV show “Can of Worms” a little tongue in cheek, a lot of truth and hopefully thought provoking. Below are ten generalised human traits which, if you take a minute to people watch and observe cover off most people you interact with on a daily basis.
Within some of these traits lays the great strengths of human nature, but also some it its greatest flaws. No doubt, some of you who read this will disagree with my observations, which is great. If you do, feel free to slam me in the comment section at the bottom of the page.
And away we go…
- We are sheep
Plain and simple… There is safety in numbers, and credibility in following the masses. Labor or Liberal? Ford or Holden? MySpace or Facebook? Google or Yahoo? The list could go on forever. There are 1,000’s of alternatives to choices we make on a daily basis, but we choose to follow the masses. Are there better alternatives? Most of the time yes, but we generally will choose the popular because it’s safe. We know what we are getting. Once you know what you are getting, there is the establishment of credibility. But here’s the thing: To fit the masses, you need to fit a conservative norm (probably Facebook and Virgin excluded). What if the norm is flawed? What if the conservative that has been developed over a period of time was just the wrong model (Ask the guys at MySpace about that one…). How does this relate to physical activity? The recommendations are that children participate in an hour of high level physical activity per day. Is this occurring? Does the school system allow for it? Is the structure of a child’s day conducive to getting this exercise in? Is an hour enough or is it a conservative norm?
- We are all OCD
Think about your normal week. Do you wake up at the same time? Do you have the same breakfast? Is your order of getting ready for school or work the same each day? Do you travel the same route to work or school every day? Do you start and finish work at the same time? Do you have the same set meal on each night of the week? (personally, I love Thursday night pizza night) Do you get your pizza from the same shop? Do you watch the same TV shows? Do you sit in the same spot on the couch? Do you sleep on the same side of the bed?... the list is endless. We are critters of habit and borderline OCD in the big picture. Sure we occasionally get out of our comfort zone, but not very often. So lets think about our physical activity. If it is not in your routine to exercise every day, or schedule enough time to get the minimal amounts of exercise is, our OCD nature may forbid us from ever getting in the activity we need. But kids… Well they’re still establishing their OCD tendencies. What if you hard wired their compulsive routine of getting to school by bike? Or you pre-program them to turn up to school with a basketball in their hand? Or they go straight from school to tennis training?
- We are lazy
A buddy of mine in school lost the remote control to his TV one day when I was round at his house. Now instead of getting off the couch to actually look for the remote, he used his innate ability to formulate an easy, lazy solution to the problem. He grabbed a broom and used the end of the handle to press the button on the TV that change that changed the channel. Genius! When I came back a week later the remote was still nowhere to be seen, but there was the broom stick (he removed the brush) sitting next to the couch labelled “remote” . True story! How about car park stalking? I’m sure you have all driven round a shopping centre car park for 20 minutes looking for a park while swearing at yourself and any other car round you that might have the nerve to pull into the park that you’ve been searching for. Or you could park in the spare spot right next to the exit, walk the 100m and save yourself 18min of time and stress. Nah that would make to much sense. Kids follow the same pattern. Give them the option of walking home or getting picked up… What will they do? Give them the option of cleaning their room now or later (knowing full well that they are even lazier than mum and dad who’s OCD nature (pre-programmed of course) will kick in before theirs causing them to do it themselves. Give them the option of watching a crap TV show that they don’t even enjoy watching or doing their homework. How often did you leave homework, an assignment or a work task to the last minute before you even started it? Ah the art of procrastination and laziness. What would happen if we just limited the options or the timelines? What if little Johnny’s movie started at the cinema in ten minutes but the bus was twenty minutes away?... But a bike was sitting there. Would he ride down? You bet.
- We look for the easy way
I hate technology (I love the irony at the fact that this is written in an online forum). It makes everything too easy but in a way I don’t understand. Take regular mail versus email. Regular mail makes sense. You walk to a post box, place the letter in the box, a guy in a van picks it up and takes it to a sorting house, more people sort where it should go, then another person delivers the mail to your house. With email, with one click just disappears and reappears where it’s supposed to go (and sometimes where it shouldn’t) with no explanation. I want to know how? I think that understanding the mechanics of how things happen allow for a greater appreciation of detail, therefore as soon as I look at any kind of task, I can appreciated it’s own complexity regardless of how simple the task may seem. But what if you have never witness the mechanics? What if you’ve never posted a letter? (which a lot of kids these days would never have done!) What if you were then faced with a complicated task that required sound mechanics and an appreciation do detail? Could you complete the task or would you just look for an easy solution? The simple fact of the matter is while everything in life is becoming easier and easier by the day, the complexity is getting harder to decipher and at some stage, the ease and complexity have to come to a head. This happens within physical activity on a daily basis. There is no fast track to getting fit and healthy. The eight minutes abs is a figment of a marketing gurus imagination. Consistent volumes of accurate training lead to an increase in performance. Does this exposure to volumes of work and attention to detail create better tools for everyday life? …We choose to go to the moon not because it’s easy but because it is hard… Good quote that; but from a different era.
- We lack self confidence
Next time some is an all mighty cock-up round the office or round the house, have a look at who steps forward and takes on the responsibility of fixing the problem. I put money on the only sound that you’ll hear is crickets. Does this often reflect the difficulty in solving the problem? In most cases, no. Most problems are caused by a minor oversight, a lack of appreciation in the complexity or detail of a task, apathy, laziness, someone having too much control, someone following orders rather than using initiative or someone just doing a half assed job. So considering that most problems can be solved quickly and easily from just finding the root of the problem and tweaking it a little, why do so many people duck for cover? What’s the consequence of trying to fix the problem and failing? It was broken in the first place so what’s the risk? What’s the reward for fixing it? (probably none but it’s your job to fix problems) So where does this lack of self confidence start? Does the problem begin with the very solution that schools have tried to implement? The “everyone passes/no one fails” academic system? The everyone gets a trophy attitude to sport? I do know this. That in life at some stage we all succeed and we all fail at different times. The level of success and failure is in direct proportion to the risk taken. But what if we teach a culture (I hate that word… but more on that another day) that doesn’t encourage or promote risk taking? Are we developing a conservative lifestyle? Are we learning to be sheep? How does this develop the confidence from taking a risk and seeing it pay off? What would you rather do… Play for the sheep station or be one of the sheep?
I'd love to hear your thoughts! Part 2 coming soon.
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