Spinning. It’s what those nutters do on the stationery bikes sweating, gyrating, literally falling of their pedals in those enclosed rooms in gyms all round the world. I hate it for the first 5 minutes. Every time – which is at least twice a week. And then you warm up. And you find the rhythm. It’s so good to absolutely push yourself. I picture myself as each track ends – as if it’s the last minute in a touch game and I try. Today was such a day. It was awesome.
As the instructor took us through the motions she mentioned that as you change position (sitting up, standing, sitting forward) to work different muscles and engage different types of endurance – she urged us TO MAKE A STATEMENT. As in, as we changed position, not to just slide or stumble into it – but to pronounce it to yourself. It struck me – that that was good advice in life. Whatever you do; not necessarily to anyone else – but to yourself as you make a change, a decision to pronounce it, to reaffirm it, to really concentrate and mean something to oneself. Especially if there is a goal you are working towards. MAKE A STATEMENT. I like that.
chaching
I was listening to a spiritual discourse around a fortnight ago. The concept of paradigms was brought up and the discourser talked about how recently there had been some global paradigm shifts. It has been IMMENSE in the last year. The financial crisis, the escalation of China, the decline of the West, the in-your-faceness of the global climate challenge. These have all been VERY macro changes but personally and I am sure for everybody the micro-consequences were undeniable. It flipped so much. September 11 did not affect me that much and the uptake on terrorism felt more like slow burner or me as I was a bit more distanced. But I remember vividly following the stock market, the news, the fallout. It was extraordinary. It was like a tsunami in slow motion, coming closer and closer – I knew I was going to get hit. There was next to nothing I could do about it. I pedaled; dang I pedaled hard. I remember telling someone that the only way to survive it was to be a “force of nature”. I tried but couldn’t work out the lock. And then there I was dazed, confused, so much that I had known had changed. The same rules did not apply, time trialed solutions did not work and even problems that I had never considered came up. BAM. The landscape changed. It was extraordinary. In many ways – it was wonderful. It was a challenge. It was scary but there was an excitement – a nervous edge – you know like Lost. You had to hack down a brand new pathway.
I learnt so much. So much about myself. Depths I did not know. I made so many mistakes. Mistakes I thought I was incapable of. I succeeded in ways that I had always wanted to. Learnt so much.
Change is the only truth in nature. Gam ze yavor.
It really hit home. What was really important. And perhaps what was not.
This was so micro. It had come from a macro catalyst. The response goes the other way. From micro to macro.
The Copenhagen summit is going on. We need to make some extremely radical changes in the way we live. How organizations function. Our idea of what is correct, what exactly a solution is – seems to all have to change. Well it doesn’t all have to change but we need to question things and be honest about the answers. Denials are just houses of cards.
I was in the States recently. It really hit home, how ridiculously unsustainable the lifestyle there is and probably other places. Big oil quenching cars (I don’t think it’s far away before there is a tax for travelling in a car with no passengers – I don’t think it’s far before car pooling is a thriving business), large food portions – the waste is unreal. The un-necessity. I believe the Bangladeshi foreign minister came out recently stating that Western countries and others that have escalated Global warming should be ready to accept millions of people from Third world countries who have not contributed and yet will be affected by the expected changes in weather patterns. That’s fair isn’t it? Yeah right. I can empathise as well – most would struggle to give up their large house and other luxuries to promote the livelihood of a person who lives millions of miles – who they have no empathetic connection to. It’s funny we will rush to help any man who is hit by a car in front our eyes and will struggle to do anything to help him but the disconnect is so huge when literally the same is occurring to another millions of miles away in front of our eyes. All of this has will change. Dramatically.
Unfortunately I don’t see the change coming from the older generations. I think it HAS to be driven by 30 year olds, 25 year olds, 18 year olds, 10 year olds. It is their future – they are armed with more education, more information – it is survival and I am sure that innate attribute “to survive” will kick in. It’s going to be fascinating to see it unravel. Here is to all of us being part of the solution and not the problem. We don’t have to be perfect – but let’s start by recognizing and want to solve the problems. To be honest – I believe that is the problem solved. You cannot fail – if you don’t quit.
Here is to paradigm shifts and the wonderful learnings it brings. Here is to the innovation in organisms and organizations that has to occur and always will.
