Keep moving
As the saying goes, ‘ life is like riding a bicycle. In order to keep your balance, you have to keep moving.’ Or, in the words of Dory in Finding Nemo (2003), ‘ Just keep swimming!’ Moving keeps our senses alert and system active, which is vitally important since when our body (both physical and cognitive) becomes dormant, this is where sloth and negativity kick in and do damage to our mental health. I have mentioned before the beauty of multitasking where we try to balance all the many things in our lives concurrently rather than one at a time (contrary to the opinion and advice of many experts). This ties in with what I perceive to be a major benefit of ‘moving’, namely not staying static, especially when we find ourselves stuck in a rut, but moving on to other tasks that are waiting for us on our ever long to-do lists. To summarise, there are always more than one thing to do, and when one is not making as much progress in the task at hand (which may be due to saturation), it may be advisable to do something else and switch back to the original task at a later point. Moving also puts us on the frontline of our lives, since, incubation notwithstanding, we make the most progress when we employ active, rather than passive, knowledge. I have defended before the many benefits of passive preparation which I still consider to be an essential prerequisite for success, but I do not deny that we only make progress when we start moving, since the task will not do itself. It needs to be stirred by us agents of change in order to be developed and ultimately completed. Such is the beauty and importance of staying active and being on our toes at all times, so that we are ready to go firing in all cylinders when the time is right. In the words of my driving instructor, ‘ Get going! ‘
I hate motion sickness, which I often get whenever I am travelling by sea (though oddly enough, I have very little problem with vehicles or planes, which is a relief as I travel by land and air very often and I would not want to throw up on every single trip that I go). It is hard to explain my motion sickness, which is probably a family trait, but one thing I have noticed is that I generally dislike the feeling of moving, let it be the change in pressure or the shift in momentum or whatever the physics behind it may be. I think most people prefer the state of being still, let it be lying down or sitting up (or any posture one likes), and I am no exception, as like most people I too like procrastinating, which is very annoying. It is nice to be still in a comfortable position, since your entire system (both physical and mental) is at rest, whereas being on the move always requires energy and effort, which drains the power and life out of you. That said, however, it is only by moving that we get things done. Unless one possesses some kind of magic power, nothing can be done by just staying still, and in order to achieve one’s goals and meet one’s objectives, one has to keep moving, moving and moving, which is why we learn the most when we are placed in difficult situations, since it is only in adversity that one is motivated to move and realise one’s potential. The more one moves, the more one gets done, painful it may be. This seems to be the only way forward. Perhaps we should all try to love the pain, enjoy the movement, and let the experience become part of us. As the old saying goes, ‘no pain, no gain.’ Keep moving everyone.
cognitive linguistics、driving、internet、life、lifehacks、motivation、multitasking、practice、procrastination、productivity、Reflexion、slow、success、time
Originally published at http://keithtselinguist.wordpress.com on October 28, 2022.
