Recently, I went to our state high school track and field championship meet — it is a wonderful spectacle — thousands of student athletes, coaches, friends and family members in one stadium. Vibrant colors are displayed in the uniforms, supportive T-shirts and baseball caps, and tents (to keep the students out of the sun). Lots of sunshine, sunscreen and water bottles.

The Saturday morning before I went to the meet to watch a friend run in the sprinting events (100 meter, 200 meter, 4 x 100 meter relay), I went for a jog by my house — which meant I was running on a dirt road with pot holes and “washboard” on the road. In the evenings, my wife and I often take walks together down the road, as well.

And I started thinking about the differences between walking, jogging and sprinting — both physically, but also in life.

Sprinting. Sprinting is cool. It is flashy. In track, the sprint events are the high profile events. At the highest level of competition, the winner of the 100 meter dash is known as “the fastest man in the world”. And man, these guys and gals can fly. They are smooth and they move with beauty.

But the events only last 10 to 50 seconds, depending on the event. “Crack”, goes the starting pistol. The athletes fly down the track. And then it is over. Someone often gets hurt — falling at the finish line, or pulling up gimpy with a pulled muscle.

Jogging. Jogging — or in track, the long distance races (1600 meters [the metric equivalent of a mile], 3200 meters or the 4 x 800 relay) — are less flashy. For some, they are boring. Young women and men steadily running around the track several times. There is a little excitement and jostling for position at the beginning of the race. Many times there is an exciting finish between two runners sprinting for the finish. (And many times there is no excitement, given the large distance between the runners.) The runners are exhausted at the end and require quite a bit of time to recover from the race.

Walking. In most track meets, there are no walking races. At longer running events (2 mile races, 10K races) they may have a two mile walking race, but they aren’t very common. Walking just isn’t much of a sporting event for most people. It is boring to watch for very long. It isn’t as physically demanding for the individual — so most athletes pursue other events.

Let’s discuss some observations and lessons for daily life that can be derived from the characteristics and differences between walking, jogging and sprinting.

Sprinting is flashy, takes a lot of talent and preparation but isn’t used much in daily life. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the need to sprint (literally, to run as fast as I can for a short distance) very often. Jogging is more for trying to keep in shape. But mostly, I walk.

In life, there are people I see from a distance or occasionally meet who seem incredibly cool. They are mega-talented, have a lot of style, and they seem to have the world by the tail. They go at a fast pace and are high profile.

But as I watch them over the long haul, many of them don’t really have staying power. They are a “flash in the pan” — bright lights & a lot of energy — but they are gone tomorrow. And often, their careers are short.

If I get in the mode of trying to sprint at work — moving real fast, making quick decisions, trying to impress others, and being primarily focused on image — I burn out fast. I don’t really get that much done. And I burn a lot of resources that require substantial time to recover. And often, I make mistakes.

Jogging takes a fair amount of effort and the distance people can jog varies greatly. Some people are in better shape than others (obviously). But even among runners, their stamina differs greatly — and you can’t necessarily tell by just looking at them.

In life, individuals differ significantly in how much emotional, mental and relational energy they have. And people’s level of personal discipline varies significantly, too. There are a lot of people who don’t have a boat-load of talent, but through commitment to get good training and daily personal discipline of doing what they need to day-in and day-out, they get a lot of work done (or develop stamina to run long distances.)

But jogging, and working consistently at a fast pace, takes energy and commitment. It is easier to walk (or not do anything), and in life, it is easier to “hang out”, do leisure activities, and not pursue goals. That is why — both for those who run long distances and those who get tasks done — joggers usually have a goal and work a disciplined plan to get there.

Most of life involves walking and walking allows for other things to be done at the same time. The majority of our life involves walking — around the house, at work, while shopping, etc. And we know walking is good for us physically. By definition, walking means you are going somewhere (versus being stagnant and passive.) In career development, I tell my coaching clients one of the major mistakes people make is to “not be going anywhere” — they are passive and waiting for something to happen.

One of things I like about walking is that I am able to do something else at the same time — think and reflect, pray, talk with Kathy, or just enjoy nature around me. When I jog (or on the rare occasion I may sprint for a short distance), my focus is on the physical activity. I am not thinking about much else.

The same is true at work or in life. If I am going at a normal walking pace, I am able to think and reflect, interact with others and enjoy the world around me while I am working. I get things done but I am not exhausted at the end of the day and I have energy left to do other things. And yes, it seems like it takes longer to get tasks done at this pace versus when I am rushing, but like the hare and the tortoise, I probably come out “ahead” at the end.

Steve Prefontaine, one of the preeminent long distance runners in the 1970’s said:

“Life’s battles don’t always go to the strongest or fastest man, but sooner or later the man who wins is the fellow who thinks he can.”

What are other lessons we can learn from these three activities? Think about it this week as you are walking.

I have been “holding off” on writing this blog, partly for fear of sounding like Chicken Little (”The sky is falling”, “TV rots your brains”, “Video games are evil”) and partly for fear of sounding like an old fogie (”Things were better when we played dominoes by candlelight”).

But I cannot hold my tongue any longer. Just today I received notice about a major study that came out this spring - a meta-analysis of 130 research studies with over 130,000 youth studied. The finding?

Violent video games make youth (both male and female) more likely to engage in personal aggression themselves. Surprise, surprise. Do you mean to tell me that watching and participating in repeated fantasy action of shooting, stabbing, hitting, and murdering others — done for hours and hours, over days, weeks, months and years — actually impacts a person’s behavior? I’m shocked.

Let’s look at some of the other negative characteristics typical of most video game playing:

Video games are primarily self-focused.
I know you can play games with others (either in person or on-line), but who really plays video games for the purpose of serving others? (Except the occasional parent who dislikes them.) It’s true, they can be a form of entertainment — used for relaxing and leisure time, for chilling. But how many of you have noticed that your children (or husband) become more self-focused, agitated, irritable and less willing to do their responsibilities after they have played for two or three hours? It is about them and what they are doing — how dare you interrupt their game and ask them to study, mow the lawn or clear the table?

Video games and the skills they build have virtually no transferability to real life. How many jobs are there that require superfast hand/eye coordination and decision-making? I used to say there were no careers for which video games prepared you for. I was corrected during a lecture — these skills are useful in the military for those who pilot drones and bombs to their destinations. I stand corrected. Now how many of those jobs are there? And how many people grow up with that career dream? That leaves about 75+ million American youth and young adults under 30.

Video games steal time and mental energy from tasks that could be truly productive and/or skill building. In business, this is known as “opportunity cost” — you only have so much time and energy. And if you spend that time and energy on Halo or World of Warcraft, then that time and energy can’t be spent on physical exercise, studying, learning to play an instrument, or working a part-time job. We are literally wasting hundreds of millions of hours of potentially productive time with our youth and young adults.

Video games create a false sense of competency. I am convinced that one of the draws of video games — especially for those students who struggle in school — is that it gives them a sense of competency. They are able to beat an adversary, win at a certain level of difficulty, or obtain virtual rewards and treasures. The problem is — the competency isn’t real; what good does it do them away from the virtual world? One time I had a significantly overweight 10 year old boy tell me he was really good at tennis. After further inquiry, I found out he was good at tennis on the Wii, but he actually believed he was good at playing tennis. We need to help our children build self-confidence but through tasks which they will use in real life.

Video games can become highly addictive, especially to individuals with ADD/ADHD. It is well-known among those who work on college campuses that many young men (primarily) spend 3 or more hours a day playing videogames. And it is documented that at least 10% demonstrated addictive behaviors — not being able to quit even if they want to, losing weight because they do not stop to eat, and probably the most common — disruptions of sleep due to playing patterns. [I recently had parents report that their 12 year old was getting up in the middle of the night after his parents had gone to sleep and was gaming for hours — they finally realized why he was always so tired.] Neuroscientists are now finding associations between the adrenaline-rush and addictive behaviors that are associated with high-stimulation video games.

(I am aware that there are exceptions to each of the above-raised points, but these are common characteristics of those children, teens, young adults and adults who play a lot of video games.)

So that I don’t just criticize and run, let me give parents some practical suggestions for dealing with the challenges associated with the video game craze in our culture.

1. Don’t accept the “everybody does it” excuse. Oh, yea. That’s a good one — right up there with smoking, under-age drinking, casual sex, smoking pot and every other generational foolish decision young people have argued with their parents about. But the problem is: almost everyone else is doing it. So parents, show some backbone. Set rules and guidelines. Fight the battle. Be “mean”. And stick to what you know is right.

2. Set limits. Take the power cords. Lock up the controls. Set on-line limits. Require that schoolwork and/or chores are done prior to any time playing games. And limit the time — 30-60 minutes on weekdays (preferably none, if you can get away with it), and 1-2 hours per day on weekends. More than that, and you can’t really monitor the limits.

3. Use the “real life” rule. Ask yourself, your husband (husbands are often part of the problem), and your children: “Would we encourage this behavior in real life?” Do I want my kids to steal cars, mug people, shoot and murder others? “Oh, it is just a game”, it is argued. Ok, then why don’t we encourage games that have your teenager rape others and burn houses down with people still in them? Give me a break — why do we need research to show us that repetitive thoughts and fantasy actions increase the probability of those actions actually occurring in real life?

4. If your children are still young, delay getting games as long as possible. The battle is harder to fight when the games are in the house. Don’t worry. They won’t be deprived — they will still play at their friends’ houses. Wait. Wait. Wait. If you want to, get them a Wii. Do the educational games. But lay off all the Gameboys, X-boxes, Playstations, Internet-based games — you and they will be better off. (I could tell you a personal story about my four kids — now ages 19 to 27, but you wouldn’t believe me.)

I know this entry has a bit of an edge and angry tone. Sorry (sort of). I wish I could communicate what I want without the irritability, but sometimes there are things worth getting angry about.

For those of you with students in school, think about how you are going to manage this summer — they are off school, have lots of free time, and you will be at work. Do you want your kids playing 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 hours of video games a day? (Ten to twelve hours isn’t unrealistic.) If not, what are you going to do about it now?

Would you like to:

• remember better what you have read?
• hold onto more information in your head?
• be better at figuring out multiple-step math problems?
• remember where you place items?
• recall what you wanted to say earlier in a conversation?
• not forget what to get from a room you just went into?
• stay mentally focused better during conversations or lectures?
• not be so easily distracted by noises and actions around you?

If so, then welcome to the field of cognitive training (or “brain training”, as it is called by the popular media.)

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a conference in Austin, Texas for a gathering of international experts (from the U.K., Sweden, Japan, Canada, and the U.S.) on one form of cognitive training — that which focuses on a core skill called working memory.

Working memory (as compared to short-term memory or long-term memory) is the ability to hold onto information while you are using it.  It is the combination of short-term memory and processing information.

So working memory is utilized when you:

• read instructions for installing a new garbage disposal in your kitchen and you try to remember the first three steps.
• are downstairs and make a list in your head of the things to remember to get from your basement.
• are running errands and you have a list of places to remember where to stop.
• try to figure out in your head what a 15-20% tip would be on a meal costing $45.00 .

This weekend we were exposed to new, and exciting research on how children’s, adolescents’ and adults’ working memory can be improved through computer-based training and its practical impact on their lives.

For example, we heard about:

  children survivors of brain tumors and leukemia. These children often lose significant cognitive, intellectual and academic abilities as a result of the chemotherapy and radiation therapy they receive.  Research being conducted at Duke University Medical Center is finding that working memory training appear to be able to reverse the losses previously experienced.

  autistic spectrum children and adolescents who also have problems with attention and poor mental focus. A multi-disciplinary outpatient treatment facility in Michigan is finding that, in addition to treatment by medication, computer-based working memory training often has positive effects on the social and emotional functioning of these students.  Parents report fewer “emotional meltdowns”, more awareness about their feelings, and better impulse control.

  elementary school ADHD students.   A group of researchers in the U.K. have found that after completing a working memory training program for five weeks, students’ academic abilities improved in reading comprehension, math reasoning, and being able to follow multiple-step classroom instructions.

Additionally, researchers are finding that:

 -working memory ability is a better predictor of academic success than students’ IQ scores.

 -deficits in working memory are highly common for children with genetic disorders.

 -traditional classroom instruction requires high levels of working memory for students.

 -students with low working memory: a) forget crucial information; and b) fail to successfully complete tasks.

To learn more about working memory, what it looks like in daily life, and to take a brief working memory assessment, go to www.aboutworkingmemory.com . 

There is a fascinating website that shares individual’s stories (preschoolers, school-age students, adolescents, and adults) who have been helped by receiving training for their working memory abilities.  And for those of you who would like to find out more about the training itself, visit www.workingmemorysolutions.com or www.cogmed.com . 

These are exciting times in the area of brain training and its impact on our daily lives!

Given the multiple “hats” that I wear professionally, some people know only about certain areas of service I provide (for example, consulting with successful business families) and not with other areas (evaluating individuals with ADD / ADHD and learning difficulties).  So I thought I would share some about the ADD / ADHD side of my work.

Although many people talk about “Adult ADD”, from a professional point of view there is no “ADD” anymore.  It all falls under ADHD, even for those individuals who are not hyperactive nor excessively fidgety.  There are actually three subtypes of ADHD:

• the hyperactive - impulsive type (sort of the classic “wild boy” that many people think of when they think of “hyperactivity” — on the go non-stop, high energy, difficult to control, loud (often), accident-prone (because they move or do things before thinking about them), etc.
• the inattentive type.  This used to be called ADD without hyperactivity.  These individuals primarily have a hard time focusing, concentrating, are easily distracted, lose their train of thought.  In girls, they were sometimes referred to as “airheads” or “space cadets”.  Guys were referred to as the “absent-minded professor-type”.  These people aren’t hyper or fidgety but they lose things easily, and are pretty disorganized.
• the combined type — that has some aspects of both.  This individual could be a “full-blown” ADHD person who is hyper, impulsive and distractible.  Or they could just be inattentive, distractible and impulsive.

A key point to note is that the person does not have to be hyperactive to be ADHD.  This is often confusing to people — I frequently hear “Well, he can’t be ADHD because he isn’t hyperactive — maybe ADD, but not ADHD.”  And I understand what the parent is saying. It is just that (from a professional’s use of the term) really no one is just ADD anymore.  [But parents and teachers still frequently use the term.]

I have been evaluating individuals with ADHD for over twenty years now, and have seen 4,000 plus students (from 5 years old to senior adults).  And frequently, after evaluating a school-aged child, the parent (often the father) says — “You know, J.D. reminds me of me as a child.  I really struggled with the same issues — and still do.”   This then can lead to an evaluation of the parent and, lo and behold, they also are ADHD (research shows that about 50% of fathers of ADHD students are ADHD themselves.) So let’s talk a little about Adult ADHD and what it looks like.

1. First, it is important to note that many very successful people are ADHD.  Some of the characteristics of ADHD (high energy, being socially outgoing, a risk-taker) help individuals become successful entrepreneurs, salespersons, entertainers, athletes, and law enforcement officers.  (You don’t tend to find too many ADHD accountants or actuaries!)  But it is also important to know that these same character qualities limit these professionals success — risk-taking in moderation (with appropriate judgment, due diligence, and risk management) can be good.  But excessive risk-taking — without the necessary ability to “wait and see”, investigate further, etc. — can lead to poor decisions with damaging results.
2. Secondly, just like ADHD students vary tremendously in their individual profile of ADHD characteristics, so do ADHD adults.  Having said that, there are some common daily life symptoms:

*Great starters. Poor finishers.  ADHD adults are often imaginative and creative.  They come up with great ideas, and even start out on the new path with lots of energy.  But they quickly can become distracted, discouraged, or overwhelmed with the details to make the project work.

*Struggle with managing paperwork.  ADHD adults can do some paperwork, for a while.  But too much paperwork overwhelms them.  And they have a hard time keeping on top of a lot of paperwork over time.  They build piles on and around their desk.  And they usually need the help of a very effective adminstrative assistant (or spouse) to clean up their piles.

*Forgetful.  An ADHD adult would “forget their head if it wasn’t connected”.  They lose their keys, their wallet, their glasses, their checkbook, important paperwork, . . . One of their most used phrases is “Has anyone seen my ….?”

*Time management issues.  Some ADHD adults tend to be chronically late to appointments, not having a good sense of time.  Others, because of their struggles in this area, overcompensate and leave early for appointments — so that they won’t be late.  A large number of ADHD individuals tend to underestimate how long it takes (or will take) to complete a task — and so they are always running up against the deadline to complete the project.

*Impulsive behaviors.  Think about doing or saying things “on impulse” — and that is the struggle many ADHD adults have.  They speak they mind bluntly.  They interrupt others.  They make quick decisions without thinking through all of the issues.  They spend money quickly and easily.  They can be impatient with others (or circumstances).  They can be easily frustrated and have a quick temper (especially when they are tired, hungry or stressed.)

*Struggle with focus and concentration.  Many ADHD individuals complain about not liking to read (they rarely read the assigned books in high school or college).  They can’t remember what they just read.  Sitting through lectures is torture for them.  They can just sit and watch TV or a movie — they have to be doing something else at the same time.  They forget what they were just going to say, or why they came into the room (it is probably a different issue if you are 50+).

There are lots of other common symptoms of Adult ADHD; these are just a few, but they give you a start.  For more information go to this website on diagnosing ADHD in adults.

So what to do if you think you, your spouse, your boss or your business colleague is ADHD?

First, find out some more.  A couple of good books are Driven to Distraction and Delivered from Distraction, written by two ADHD doc’s, Hallowell & Ratey.

Second, see what resources are available.  www.addwarehouse.com has numerous books and videotapes on Adult ADHD, including ones specifically for women.

Third, it is important to know what treatments are available.  Most people jump to the conclusion that treatment by medication is the only alternative.  Although medication can be helpful, there are other ways to help ADHD adults.  Coaching for ways to manage their primary problem areas can be effective.  Also, there is a relatively new computer-based cognitive training program that has been shown to be highly effective as well.

I could say a lot but more, but for those who really need this, I’ve already pushed the limits of their ability to focus this long.  Have a great week!