In my travelling and daily activities I often run into ideas, rules, measures that are developed only to decrease anxiety or fear. Look around, read the Internet or newspaper, or watch TV: the world seems to have become a scary place, right?<\/p>\n
Economic disaster is slowly creeping forward. Detroit, once home of the world\u2019s biggest car industry,\u00a0 just went bankrupt, terrorists can strike anywhere, anytime, even in Norway. The police in Iceland killed its first\u00a0 offender, global human interference causes changes in the climate and the weather with disastrous results. We even have earthquakes in Holland.\u00a0 No wonder that more and more people lose trust in everything and start to feel more uncomfortable than ever. We have become afraid, very afraid\u2026..
\nAm I exaggerating? Well, look at the statistics in Europe. There is a shift of the disease burden from physical disease to mental problems and limited mental functioning. I know the numbers in this country, a relatively quiet country with a population of 16.6 million, and disregard the persons under 10 years old and over 75 years old.\u00a0 Hold on to your chair:
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 850.000 people suffer from depression (around 6-7%)
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 8% of the population is alcoholic (800 people die from it each year directly and 1500 indirectly due to accidents caused by the use of alcohol)
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1.7 million people suffer from anxiety disorders
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20% of the Dutch people are smoking still
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 10% of the population is taking sleeping-pills
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 12% of the population will suffer a burnout during their working career
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 around 15 % of the population smokes cannabis
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1 million people run, swim, bike or fitness their discomfort away
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 considering the growing epidemic\u00a0 of obesity and metabolic syndrome, around the same number are eating their discomfort away.<\/p>\n
Are we as happy as we always pretend to be? Clearly not, otherwise we did not need these measures to rebalance our wellbeing with exogenous or endogenous chemicals.
\nWhat are the reasons for this? I am a simple coach who observes his environment and thinks about it.
\nMaybe a reason could be that we lost the way to fulfill our sense of belonging since everywhere we see: YOUtube, MYspace, Iphone, SELF-development. And the youngest generations having the feeling that the world is turning around them and that they only have rights and no duties or responsibilities to society.\u00a0 The downfall of community-feeling, the empty churches, or bowling alleys, (read: \u201cBowling alone\u201d by Robert Putnam). We are more than ever and feeling lonelier than ever before. We do not stand up against injustice, we are afraid to lose our jobs or our status doing that, no that was something for hippies in the sixties, or the nuts from Occupy. No, we were taught only to stand up when our own interest is in danger.<\/p>\n
We learned not to trust the Church. Recently this institution that was based on our trust and belief, turned out to be the largest pedophiliac network and these crimes were practically unpunished. We learned that banks are no longer there to create wealth and security\u00a0 for society as a whole, but just\u00a0 do that for a few ruthless bankers at the top, at the expense of all of us. Politicians makes us laugh about their vain attempts to restore trust. Less and less voters turn up at the ballot boxes, a clear sign, since also here self-interest dominates their behavior.
\nAgain, I\u00a0 am\u00a0 not politically left or right or socialist, democrat, or liberal. These are ideas which have outlived their use.\u00a0 We can find good and bad ideas anywhere and on any side.<\/p>\n
Anxiety and fear penetrated every level of society and every aspect of our lives. We have insurances, and we made laws, rules, regulations, certifications, protocols, etc. Based on a basic lack of trust, that\u2019s why there are so many rules. Yes, there will always be people trying to escape the rules but on a daily basis we feel the paradoxical effect by making new and stricter rules for everybody. So basically one is generalizing and punishing the people who obey the rules, to limit the people who do not, but these people will always find a new way anyway.\u00a0 Now we call that collateral damage.<\/p>\n
But how are we coaches, are we good role models in this aspect?
\nTake our workouts: many athletes are overloaded, overtrained or injured (or coming back from or on their way to injury). Why?\u00a0 We are more afraid to do too little, but by doing so, we neglect the risk of overload.
\nWe tend to be control freaks, trying to get and keep control over our own environment and our athlete\u2019s .\u00a0 And this may sound strange coming from my side, we also like to monitor as many factors as possible to control the training process, hoping that more data will give us more control (which clearly isn\u2019t the case!).\u00a0 If 5 years back to back your athlete does not improve, you\u2019d better ask the question what YOU are doing wrong. But as described above, the tendency\u00a0 to protect ourselves and when encountering a mistake, an error or something that is not going well, we learned to look outside first (the \u201dothers\u201d) , instead of inside.
\nWell, here are the basic well known ideas, and the real challenge: acting on it.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 make mistakes, but only once
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 don\u2019t be afraid to help others
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 don\u2019t be afraid to ask for help\/advice yourself
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ask others you see struggling, if they need your help
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 don\u2019t be afraid to lose your job, if you are as good as you think, you will always find\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a\u00a0 new job, there is always a need for quality people
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 never accept the dominance of the narrow-minded, the ignorant, the psychopath, the fundamentalist, the selfish, the envious, even if they are in power<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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