Getting Off the Treadmill of Life
Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash
I finished reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari and one line in particular jumped out to me:
"... we revved up the treadmill of life to ten times its former speed and made our days more anxious and agitated.”
Yuval was referring to innovations that were created to save us time, but have instead made our life more fast-paced - things like smartphones and email.
The concept of the "treadmill of life" resonated with me. I thought it was a good way of describing how life has felt so far to me:
Work hard in high school to get into a good college
Work hard in college to get a good job
Work hard in your job to climb the corporate ladder
The funny thing is that no matter how fast you run on a treadmill, at the end of the day you will always end up in the same place you started. All that hard work and yet I still felt as anxious as ever. I am a big fan of productivity hacks like Inbox Zero - but lately I've been wondering if all this extra productivity is really a net positive. As Yuval discussed, my life feels faster but the end result is that I feel more anxious instead of accomplished.
So how do you get off the treadmill? I think the first step is to recognize that you're on a treadmill to begin with. Do you feel as though you are spinning in place? I am sure you are working hard now, but is your hard work taking you in the direction you want to go? Do you even know where you want to go? When was the last time you pressed "pause" and reflected on where your life is heading?
After you've hit pause - take the first step off the treadmill and onto whatever path you've chosen for yourself. Don't underestimate the power of taking even short baby steps. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
What do you think about the "treadmill of life"? Feel free to send me an email.