A week or two ago, one of my friends gave me a book by Seth Godin titled What to do When its Your turn (And Its Always Your Turn). I'm a sucker for self help books and was more excited about that than finishing exams so needless to say, I decided to start reading it right then. Within the first couple of pages the book opened with a black page with nothing but the words The Broken Escalator Theory. The author explains this theory through a short one paragraph description of two "important looking people" are on an escalator when it stops moving. Insisting that they can't go anywhere, the two people start calling for help and wait for someone to fix the escalator. Instead of walking up the stationary stairs to where they need to be, they can't see past the original function of the piece of equipment.

In 2006 a commercial for a Canadian company, Becel, was released demonstrating the absurdity of the situation.

The commercial is not providing social commentary of the inability to walk up stairs, but more of a commentary of how people see success. Here are two people who obviously have gotten to high places in their industry and they are unable to see the determining factor between them and their goal. To the outside viewer, the escalator readily functions as stairs. Easily, these two people could put one foot in front of the other and quickly reach the floor they intended to get off on.

So why didn't they?

Because someone told them them that you could get on an escalator and not put in any effort and still get to the desired floor. Because they learned that they didn't have to put in any effort.

So the question is: what if they decided to start walking? What if they put in just a little bit of effort to continue toward their goal?

Well, one might say, "They would break a sweat." And yes, they most certainly would, especially if they had multiple flights to go up. I think this applies to our every day lives as well. We can continue to go thorough the motions and get by or we can choose to take initiative and see growth in our lives. We've all heard the common phrase "D's get degrees" (I myself have said this numerous times in reference to math classes) but if the escalator stops and you aren't producing D's, whats going to happen? You're going to fail. Aside from college, you can have a job and do the very least but if you make a mistake there is no reason for the company not to fire you. So instead of waiting for the escalator to stop and having to make the decision then, why not be proactive and walk when the escalator is moving. Why not study or do a little extra on the job? Supplementing the preexisting effort will only benefit you.

Break a sweat, and when you reach your goal, keep going. Whatever it is that you want to do, just keep walking up the steps.While there are outside determining factors that are independent from you, its a decision that you have to consciously make. You must wake up every morning and decide that you are going to achieve your goals and add your footsteps to the escalator instead of just waiting and hoping it gets you there without breaking. You have to have the mindset that you are capable of the goal you've set and you can get there with just a little extra effort.

Its always odd to me how once you notice something it seems to start to appearing everywhere. Its always been there and you've always interacted with it but because your attention has been drawn to it, it stands out more than it did before. This mindset of making the active decision to go beyond the expected has always been in my life, and it wasn't until recently that I realized how true the adults in my life have been and how abundant this is thrust upon us in culture. Maybe not in the same phrase every time, but the idea is persistent throughout our media outlets. One night I woke up to someone on the television saying, "There's an opportunity in every crisis." I don't know to what the person was referencing, but the message is the same. You can let a crisis consume you or you can choose to make the best of it and decided to learn from it. As cliche as it is, maybe all those old parables your second grade teacher told you were there for a reason other than to keep the attention of 20 eight-year-olds for a few minutes.

The escalator demonstrates the necessity for you as a person to decide when to choose between waiting on things to pan out or for you to be proactive about your endeavors. When your escalator stops, you can choose to start walking or you can choose to wait until someone comes along and fixes it for you. Hopefully you are among those who choose to keep walking. With the familiar ring of Kris Kringle and The Winter Warlock bound to be stuck in your head, I leave you to ponder the choice to perusing your goals or sitting back and waiting for them to fall into place, and maybe you will check out Seth Godin's book in the hyper link above.

Merry Christmas and thanks for reading!