Are You Going Nowhere Fast? Emotional Intelligence and Hamster-Wheeling

Friday mornings are one my favorite times of the week!  It is my theoretical day off and I start it by having coffee with 5 other guys.  We discuss our lives and how we are doing with work, family, faith, and other pertinent life topics.  Currently we are reading a book about life’s seasons.


This week we kept coming back to a a concept we kept referring to as “Hamster-Wheeling.”

Hamster-Wheeling: spinning but really going nowhere

Hamster-Wheeling is that feeling of being on a hamster wheel spinning and spinning but really going nowhere.  At times most of us will feel like we are burning valuable time and emotional calories on the hamster-wheel leading to nowhere.  Those are usually just feelings.  Feelings are indicators to pay attention to something – not necessarily to start something or stop something.

 Developing emotional intelligence can help with Hamster-Wheeling.  That’s what we did together last Friday.  We challenged each other into a healthier emotionally intelligent place.  We got to a good place with this notion of “Hamster-Wheeling.”.

I summarized some of the things we settled on to combat Hamster-Wheeling:

1)     Adjust your attitude.  Making a decision to have a more positive outlook can make a lot of difference.
2)    Have honest, healthy conversations with others.  Our conversation spurred us out of negativity and sparked us to action.
3)    Acknowledge life’s seasons.  We all go through seasons and seasons give way to new seasons.
4)    Fight mediocrity.  In a less than optimum season, fight the urge to become complacent  and stop spinning on the hamster-wheel. 
5)    Strive for Gusto.  On your current hamster-wheel, grab what you can learn so you can take it to the next season.

Hamster-Wheeling is a part of life.  While we are spinning and spinning, we can still make progress and constantly improve our emotional intelligence.