All this talk about moving forward is
a perfect transition into the second
member of our Axis of Distraction—the
allure of progress.
We all know progress is addictive. It’s
hardwired into us. Even something
as simple as opening an advent
calendar can bring it out in me. I
experience a wonderful pleasure in
opening those little windows every
day before Christmas, a pleasure that
goes beyond the reward of that little
piece of candy hidden inside. Opening
the next window triggers something
deep inside each of us—the allure of
progress.
A friend of mine had been trying to shed
some excess weight he’d put on during
the first few years of his marriage. It
wasn’t all that much, maybe about
twenty pounds, but he struggled to lose
it despite trying all sorts of different
diets and exercise regimens. He was
becoming increasingly discouraged by
how little weight he had lost, especially
when he saw other people who, with
the slightest effort, seemed to lose
a small child’s worth of weight in no
time at all. Soon he found himself in a
perpetual cycle. He couldn’t stick with
any particular program long enough for
it to make a difference. He would get
frustrated by his extra weight, vow to do
something about it, then give up when it
didn’t seem to be working.
He continued in this cycle until he
got an Apple Watch and tracked his
diet and exercise through a few apps.
Soon he was using measuring cups to
portion out how much cheese he’d put
in his quesadilla. He would scan the
barcode on packaged food to figure
out how many calories it contained. If
he forgot to wear his Apple Watch, he
wouldn’t work out that day since his
hard work wouldn’t count toward his
weekly exercise statistics. He became
obsessed with making healthy food
choices and hitting the gym every day.
Why the change?
Because what had once been nebulous
and invisible had now become
something concrete, measurable, and
visible. He now had a way to track and
monitor the work he was doing. For the
first time he could see his progress—
and it was addictive.
While our desire for progress can be a
powerful asset and can help us make
healthy lifestyle changes, it can also
become another form of distraction.
I live in a city with some of the worst
traffic the world has ever seen. The
average Atlanta driver spends 70.8
hours stuck in traffic every year.
Not to mention that our reputation
for dealing poorly with inclement
weather conditions might well be
warranted. As mentioned earlier, we
experienced the “Snowpocalypse” (or
“Snowmageddon”) in 2014, and more
recently, an enterprising soul set fire to
a plastic lawn chair under an interstate
overpass, and soon the entire thing
was ablaze. Atlanta had 99 problems,
and a bridge was one.
I say all this to point out that I hate
sitting in traffic.
I know that doesn’t make me unique.
I’m sure you hate it too. Sitting in traffic
is the worst. And what I’ve noticed is
Solutions • 15