Communication Basics: Healthy Begins with Fast and Variable

I Have to Last and Not Just be Fast, I Have to Be Fast and Not Just Last

Whenever a person does an activity like writing a book, it is done in the context of time.  There is a first edition and there is a last edition.  From one to the other, improvements can be made, but the first edition remains the first except under one condition.  That condition is that a significant part of the fast first edition will last until the last edition.  Was the book written well enough to avoid a full restart at its core?  Will I need to retract what I said in any major way? 

I wrote the first edition of my book, Mental Health for Everyone, to get out my ideas fast and to make them last.  I felt the need to try to break the cycle of mental illness fast, especially for the sake of the suicidal; but also to make corrections to my work as it progressed to make sure its effect will last.  The finishing part is never completely done for a writer.  For example, I can always continue improving the book.  The only question is whether the start requires a full restart.  I don’t believe my book will require a re-start – that I was too jumpy and was guilty of a false start.  I waited for the gun and I am off and running already with no plans to finish until the race is over!

I don’t need to restart what I did, but that doesn’t mean I can’t add to what it says to explain aspects of the book in a still better way.  My principle in the area of schooling and relationship of “fast and variable” will last.  I will not retract that piece, but I can still further amplify what I mean.  I’m a track athlete and track coach so my analogy from track is routine to me.  Even the complex parts are relatively simple to me. The first edition of has to balance amplify with simplify, but only in the future it can be good to still further amplify it as well.

 

Let’s amplify what I say in my book.  So what do I mean when I suggest that the key to schooling is being fast?  Doesn’t that fly into the face of common sense which according to Aesop’s Fable says that “Slow and steady wins the race”.  Also doesn’t that disagree with psychology’s insights about manic-depression or hyper-activity?  I can clearly answer for myself that it does not fly in the face of common sense or the basic insight of psychology on manic-depression.  Let me assure you though what I mean by adding to what I have said before. 

In my book, Mental Health for Everyone, I emphasize four principles for guiding mental health in the areas of education, schooling, coaching, and teaching.  They are:

         1)   Biggest 
         2)  Fastest  
         3) Strongest 
         4)  Smartest

It is not just the biggest that wins, it is not just the fastest that wins, it is not just the strongest that wins, and not just the smartest that wins.  It requires all four in some winning combination.  All of this may sound a bit controversial.  I can’t amplify on that here in this short space or amplify on every principle individually here, but let me assure you that I am aware of the movement from big (small) to biggest, fast to fastest, strong to strongest, and smart to smartest. 

I am not a proponent of the too big to fail, etc. thinking.  I am a proponent of a healthy movement from all of the least starting points to all of the greatest ending points.  For example, biggest is a virtue, and it is not a harm in the proper understanding.  In the size of this blog entry, I am going to only amplify more what I have said before on fast to fastest, but I can make it even bigger elsewhere or when I am given more time than the average blog reader will give me. 

There are five themes I want to emphasize.  To each I will devote one paragraph.  They are:

1) Fast to Last

2) Fast to Fastest

3) Variable before steady

4) Unhealthy states

5) Healthy states

First, let’s discuss fast to last.  Here is a key thing.  The carpenter’s rule says, “Measure twice, cut once”.  Why don’t they say measure once?  Isn’t that faster?  Doesn’t twice mean we waste time?  Doesn’t that mean there is no end to double-checking, triple-checking, etc.?  You get the point.  I believe the first measure is to get the job done fast.  The second measure to make sure the first measure can last.  If it doesn’t and only if it doesn’t, then  you measure again to make sure it will last.  You keep re-measuring until you get a match, then the measure with high probability will last and now you can move fast to cut the board once.  It is a lot better than starting over again, because you were going too fast.  In the long haul, a house built by measure twice until two agreed is built fast and to last. 

Next, notice that I say it starts from fast and moves to fastest.  I don’t believe that in life we begin from slow.  Even babies are commended for being fast, when they are.  They learn that fast trying to keep up with adults.  We recognize when they are getting fast.  We say, “Look at him (or her) go!” Today, we have the signal speed of electricity moving at trillions of kilometers per hour to power the internet and our cell phones.  The baby’s physical movements are no match for the signal speed of the human brain or the internet, but eventually that baby may become the physically fastest man (or woman) on earth! 

Next, I say variable comes before steady for a very obvious reason.  When I first was a competitive runner in grade school no one said anything about steady.  They didn’t have too.  I never ran far enough for that advice to really apply.  Even when I ran somewhere around 550 meters, I just ran as fast as I could to stay with the leader.  Later in Junior High, I set a record (that didn't last!) in the 200 meters.  It was not until high school, when I went up to the 400 meters, that I realized first that I had to vary my speed from the 200 meter race.  Then I also learned to vary my pace (very slightly) for the 4 parts of 400 meters.  Finally, when I move to the mile, then I learned the lesson of steady.  But steady doesn’t win a single race, if you are slow.  Aesop is wrong.  Someday, I am going to write not a fable called, “The Tortoise and the Hare”, but the true story called, “The Wolf, the Tortoise, and the Hare.  Well, it will be a fable that is in one sense true. You can imagine who wins!

Next, I want to applaud psychology.  The other day, I applauded psychology and a sincere Christian, who met me for the first time, wanted to introduce me to Jesus.  He didn’t know I could applaud both.  Let me applaud psychology for recognizing one unhealthy state – manic depression.  Most of society still doesn’t know what it is, because the diagrams for it are rarely introduced with the theory.  Psychology gets it right that manic-depression is unhealthy.  It shows that too fast is harmful outside the healthy lines.  Please pause for the applause.  Now, there is still one problem.  That is not the only unhealthy state.  It is though the only unhealthy state that colors outside the healthy lines.  So that unhealthy state is fairly obvious.  There is another state that is equally unhealthy.  I call it the too slow version of unhealthy – procrastination regret.  On the upper cycle it lives in the euphoria of its procrastination and in the lower cycle it lives in the despair of regret.  This too is unhealthy!  This set of unhealthy states can happen between the lines as can also too fast unhealthy states within the lines. Psychology needs to finish the job!

Finally, the major problem for psychology in the US at least is, as Japanese leaders in the business world have commented, that they are too negative.  They start with a name that essentially names what is unhealthy, but does not start with what is healthy.  They don’t talk about the four speeds we have in track that are healthy: rest, sprint, run, and walk.  What is the name for all the healthy states together?  In track, we call one combination Fartlek running with unappealing connotations.  So do we call the healthy states fast variable instead?  That is my first guess.  It may not be my very last, but I am sticking to as a start for discussing what is healthy and not just what is unhealthy.  My track coach made me a healthy runner.  He didn’t just teach when I was an unhealthy runner.  I pray that we can all learn to be healthy minders and not just healthy runners, etc. 

Everyone needs to last to a reasonable level and not just be fast.  We also have to be fast to a reasonable level and not just last.  Have a great day running your mind to health and not to stealth – a hidden objective of health.  I have revealed to you some part of what is healthy here.  It is a start.  I will add one last thing.  Smart athletes know that the first step to running fast is recharging your batteries with rest when needed.  That especially applies to your mind.  Take care. May you now have greater peace of mind. 

Be Healthy Everyone,

Jon

Communication Basics: The Tortoise and the Hare Story isn't True Even if Fictional

Listen to these phrases:

     let's rest for a second

     let's sprint for a minute

     let's run for an hour

     let's walk for today

Please note the combination of speed variations with the variety of time frames.  They vary accordingly.  So which is better resting or walking?  The question seems a little crazy doesn't it, because in context neither is better than the other.  But all four paces or speeds are necessary.  My point is that you need to be able to have different speeds to do well.  

What is missing in so many discussions of big topics like manic-depression is the basics.  We too often don't start there, but at the pinnacle of what we know and sufficiently complicate it so that no one knows what we are really saying.  So let's not begin first with the meaning of manic-depression. Let's start with some more basic questions than even those presented above.

Let's start out with a first question you could ask grade school children.  It is: 

Which is better fast or slow?

I can hear the children shouting out: Fast!  

Let's ask a second question, but this time of children who are older like junior highers.  It is:

Is it better to vary your speed or to always be at the same speed?  

I can hear the students shouting: Vary!

Finally, let's ask some high schools to put this altogether.  Which is better fast and steady, fast and variable, slow and steady, or slow and variable?  

I believe they would combine fast and variable together and regard that combination as the best.  The thing that I think is overlooked is what I learned in track.  It is the person who gets to the finish line first who wins, not the person who exceeded their body's speed limits for the full distance.  The body and the mind have limitations on them depending on the distance to be traveled.  It is about the destination first and the time allowed second.  It is about our matching pace third.  

A distance runner is a lot like a sprinter - both are going their fastest to get to a destination.  The difference is that they are able to run or sprint in a different gear than the other.  They establish a comfortable winning pace for their race.  Even sprinters vary how they run a 100 meter, 200 meter, and a 400 meter race.  They are not the same  in terms of which gear you use to run that respective race.  But all are at your fastest possible pace, if you desire to win.  

That is more easily seen in the case of distance runners - the pace is critical to winning the race - to getting to the finish line first.  The goal is not to be the fastest - then you would run the same speed as a sprinter and crash and burn - the goal is to be the first to the finish line.  So fast here is relative to the distance and the time allowed.  Fast varies.  

We don't allow a sprinter to run the 100 in 2 minutes.  We also don't expect the miler to run the mile in 2 minutes.  Yet both racers can win their respective races with faster paces and shorter times than others in their same race.  That is why I think the rule is fast and variable.   I agree with my high school track teammates.  

The story of the Tortoise and the Hare is very distorting of the honest truth.  The reality is that the hare would have won had he had a warning system to resume his run following his rest periods.  The other thing is that the race distance favored the tortoise.

The problem is that this story places in some minds the idea that slow and steady is favorable.  I don't think it is.  The goal in track is to run as fast as you can within your capacity.  It is not to go as slow as you can.  You are not running so as to win the race, when you run slow.  That does not mean it can't be a variance of fast that helps the most and is the healthiest.  

Manic depression comes from too fast BUT not from fast.  Likewise procrastination comes from too slow or not fast enough.  We must avoid both traps in order to measure up to what every high school student knows - all they have to do is walk to a friendly track meet.  I sure wish more people did!  We would have more people practicing fast and variable.  Run your pace to the race and rest, sprint, run, or walk your way to victory over manic-depression or procrastination-regret!

Sincerely,

Jon