I have always loved a good fad. Ooh, look! Something new! In my youth, skateboards, yo-yos, The Beverly Hills Diet. And as I have aged, so I have taken up a lot of the personal productivity fads that have come and gone (and the paraphernalia that surround them): Filofaxes, Covey and his big diary, Merlin Mann‘s HipsterPDA, GTD, Moleskine and G2 Pens. I have also had my fair share of lifestyle fads: aerobics, gym, adventure racing, triathlons, vegetarianism, paleo, green juices. And, like many of us, I tasted each and then quickly, spat it out.
It seems to me, though, that these fads are more frequent, and social media means they are spreading quicker. One of the good things about getting older is that I am more happy these days to just let them pass me by. However, that’s not the case for many people and there is an emerging body of written work, on top of new fads themselves, that critiques the pressure these prevailing trends place upon us as individuals to constantly be better, be more, be perfect. With New Year’s Resolution Season upon us, Alexandra Schwartz has written a delightful piece in this month’s The New Yorker on the various perspectives presented by these new(ish) books, and on the fad (aka self-improvement) industry as a whole (worth an estimated $10bn a year). If you have more than a passing interest in what The Secret is, it’s worth a read.
Having devoured all of these tomes (one assumes), she concludes by taking herself off to read a novel, immersing herself in other people’s lives presumably being a respite from the need to concentrate on herself!
As I think about my own year ahead, I find myself strangely low on SMART goals and nary a fad in my future. More of the same is about all I have managed so far. But that is quietly pleasing: If that’s what I want, I must be getting things going in the right sort of direction.