The Definition of Insanity

 I’ve been a little taken back that my piece on “Should You Exercise for Life,” has been getting a bit of traction on Linkedin. The story was essentially about two friends who found that exercising for life had benefits other than the physical.

However, I realise that these two gentlemen might be an exception. If I look closely at enough at the people around me, I realise that there’s one major problem with aging – namely the fact that you become rather resistant to change no matter how beneficial or necessary that change might be to your survival.

One of the reasons why “older” people are so resistant to change is because they tend to be better off. A guy who has worked ten years is more likely to have cash in the bank than a kid who started out. If you’ve been around somewhere for a decade or so, chances are you’ve found a formula of sorts to move on with life. When you think you have a formula, there’s no need to look for another one. By contrast a kid who just started out needs to experiment to find his or her formula to life.

However, if one looks at the pace of technological change, one will realise that established formulas are no longer reliable. What worked yesterday may not work today and quite often it takes “crisis” to force a change.

If you look at the two gentlemen in the previous posting, you’ll notice that both went through a personal crisis. This gave them the impetus to change the way they were doing things. Change in their lifestyle brought them back their health. Their improved health helped improve all other aspects of their lives.

However, I’ve realized that these gentlemen are a rare breed. Human beings can be so hard wired that even the threat of a decline in the quality of life and impending death can’t them to change. The most amusing example of this was found in a reality TV show called the “1000lbs Sisters,” which follows the story of two sisters whose combined weight is 1,000lbs (453kg). They can barely walk and the root cause of their health problems is painfully obvious their lifestyle is screwed up. The heavier sister (600 lbs or 272 kg) is particularly interesting. Despite being told that she’s likely to die unless she makes drastic changes, she persists in carrying on. Take a look at the following clip on how they don’t drink water – they drink “soda” to counteract sugar. The expression on dietician’s face is priceless:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIAFe7zaCRU

 

 The 1,000 Lbs sisters are merely the most public example of people who double down and refuse to change in the face of crisis. Recently met someone whose diabetes was so bad that he’s lost his hearing and had his toes amputated. Yet, he insists on drinking Coke and proudly declares that he does not take vegetables. Why do people let their health reach that stage and why can’t they see the problem even when its pounding upon them?

I’m not saying that I’m saintly. I’ve persisted in many sticking with many rough decisions when I should have cut earlier. I stayed married to the first wife longer than I should have. I should have started exercising in my 30s instead of waiting to be hospitalized in my late forties. I should have worked a blue-collar job alongside my freelance work earlier and thus had a better financial savings. I did make the adjustments but it took a while. Yes, not all the changes have been to my liking but it was better than the alternative, which was to be a poorer, sicker person.

Change in inevitable and if we’ve learnt anything from the last two-decades it should be that change is so constant that paradigms and formulas are constantly changing. What worked yesterday may not work today. I personally argue that the best form of crisis is called anticipation – the best way to manage a crisis is not to let it get to crisis stage in the first place. I’d also add that the worst form of crisis management is called – digging deeper – where you double down on the thing that brought you down in the first place. I recently met someone who wrote an email calling the judge an unflattering name. This fellow then proceeded to tell the police that he would do it again. I told him that he was begging to be slapped very hard and he’d lose what he wanted most (custody of his son). He insisted that his was a principled stance.

Many of us, myself included, tend to avoid problems instead of dealing with them head on. It’s a natural thing to not want to deal with the unpleasant. Then we hit “crisis” point. At that point we should be forced to deal with the crisis so that we survive and even bloom as a result of the crisis. Whilst we should anticipate crisis, we should, when they come around, use them to learn. Doing the same thing that brought the crisis in the first place is the very definition of insanity.