Am I the Hamster Running on the Wheel?

by Zahra Petri

I was watching TV recently and although I DVR everything to skip the commercials, I kept noticing this one interesting commercial. It begins with dozens of hamsters each running on a wheel on roads, highways, intersections…etc. Then a zippy little red car pulls up next to the hamster wheels at a red light and there are 4 hamsters inside smiling with sunglasses on giving the thumbs up. The light turns green and they zip off leaving all the hamsters stuck on their wheels running in place.

Now even though this is clearly a car commercial, it always catches my attention because I sometimes feel like that hamster on the wheel, stuck in the middle of the road, getting nowhere. When this happens, I used to stress and feel my anxiety level immediately rise. However, I now have a series of trouble shooting processes to turn to. Instead of panicking, I look at my task list to see what I need to accomplish next. I first see which items have due dates to determine which task takes priority. I also check my calendar to see if I have any upcoming appointments that I need to prepare for. This is all part of my system, my Getting the EDGE system.

If I ensure that I am using my system appropriately, inputting new tasks as they appear, marking my calendar correctly, emptying my inbox and managing my project flow, then I know that I can trust my system to guide me and push me forward when I feel stuck. The most important question I ask myself when I am in that place is: what is it I want to accomplish, what is my end goal? The answers to these questions are in my Desired Outcome statement, which is a statement I’ve created for each project I am working on and can easily refer to for a motivational reboot. This combined with my GTE system gets me motivated and energized so that I can speed off past the other hamster wheels in the zippy red car!