Monday, November 7, 2016

Swing of the Pendulum


Why are we so prone to pendulum swings and over-correction?

For instance, you’re driving down the highway and maybe you’re listening to the game or distracted by the warning light on the dash (I’m going to give you credit for not being one of those moronic miscreants who texts while driving) and you suddenly realize you have drifted a little too far to the left or right. Most of us don’t drift back to correction at the same speed; we jerk the wheel to get back there as quick as we can, thereby doing something almost as dangerous as the drift we intended to correct.

And what about those pendulum swings? I’m not saying that the “middle ground” is always the preferable ground, but often the best tack is the one that falls between the extremes. We think we’re too fat, so rather than eat sensibly we starve ourselves.  We get disgusted with some show on TV, so we ban TVs from the house.

I think the reasons are two-fold: one, it’s just a knee-jerk reaction; and B, it’s easy. It’s a lot easier to just cut out all sugar than go to the trouble of smart-shopping, reading labels, balancing my meals, etc.

To walk on that middle path, I’m going to have to do some thinking. It’s a lot easier to just be “all in” whether “all in” is something worth being or not.

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