Watching Adam Peaty in the 100m Breaststroke Final in Paris 2024.
What an incredible effort he's made to achieve medals across 3 Olympic cycles....
And what an incredible toll it took on him.
Adam became dependent on alcohol and suffered 18 months of depression due to the pressures he faced and the sacrifices he made, so it was great to see him acknowledge his progress finding balance in his life despite only getting a silver medal.
It’s not natural or viable to be in a state of perpetual hard work and achievement. And the process of human evolution means that we’re now ready for a more balanced approach.
We’ve created a story about hard work that’s been dominated by the pursuit of high achievement.
…And naturally, there’s a place for this kind of driven, disciplined and directed hard work.
But this kind of hard work is not the only way.
It’s time to shift the narrative to include a more open, inclusive and balanced picture of what hard really looks like.
So are we hard wired to constantly achieve more? 💪
Or is this a learned behaviour?
🤔
Can science prove that working ever harder is an inevitable aspect of our psychology? 🤓
...Or have we unwittingly applied a bias to look for the hard-wiring of this principle based on social conditioning and socio-economic structures?
With growing evidence that productivity doesn't rely solely on hard work and greater societal awareness of #ableism and the need for #inclusivity, is the tide turning towards a more balanced narrative of the value of hard work?
Are you the businessman or the fisherman from the fabel below? And more importantly, what are the benefits or pitfalls of each approach?
.......
A businessman asking a fisherman, who is idle in his boat, why he is not going to sea again to catch more fish. The fisherman answers that he went in the morning and his catch was so good that […] I have enough for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
The businessman then decides to give him a short lesson in economics. If you go again, you’ll catch more fish, he says. Do it regularly and you’ll have enough money to get several boats, to open a restaurant, to get a factory, and then… “What then?” asks the fisherman. “Then you may relax here in the harbour with your mind set at ease, doze in the sunshine and look out on the magnificent sea.”
“But that’s what I am doing just now” answers the man in the boat.
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