Are You More Like?: Are you more like the escalator or the stairs?
Escalators. Stairs. Both of which transport people between floors of a building.
But there is one that I feel I connect with more, and that is the escalator. I connect with it more because of what it symbolically represents.
I feel that some people may associate me more with the stairs, and I understand why. As stairs force people to put in the effort to move their legs up or down, stairs symbolically mean putting in a lot of work to reach a goal. Stairs symbolically mean enduring struggles in order to reach a higher level of success.
There is a tweet I remember seeing. Essentially, it says, “The person who outsmarts you is out working you. The person who finds shortcuts is out working you. The person with a better strategy is out working you. Usually, the hardest work is thinking of a better way to do it.” This is like an escalator.
Physically working hard isn’t necessarily a bad thing; however, strategic thinking is important and beneficial in the long run. Strategies outshine mindless hard work. It helps conserve mental energy and increase motivation. While I try my best, there are times when all I want to do is take breaks and rest. My productivity ability should not be the value I have as a person.
Society encourages the idea of hard work, sometimes even to the point where maximum productivity is valued above everything else, like it’s important to sacrifice any moment of relaxation or free time. This is a mentally and physically draining cycle.
The value of human life should never be defined by productivity. People have gifts in what they can do with their lives, what they bring to people, and what they bring out of people. The way that one spends their life, how they treat other people, and specific actions they choose to take all show more about a person’s personality, attitudes, behaviors, and motives than productivity ever could.
Rather than work to fatigue or exhaustion, it is helpful to think out how to reduce labor while still accomplishing the same goal. But of course, thinking of strategies and not taking any action to put them into effect is useless. These strategies still do require effort.
And that is why I am more like the escalator. It’s “work smart,” not “work hard.”
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As you describe the symbolism between staris and escalators is very unique. I didn’t really know what those two represent until after I read the post. The way that you have to use more energy to walk up or down the stairs while on an escalator you can just stand there with electricity doing all the work. Just move with the flow and let nothing stop in the way.
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