Stream Theory
Something that I always think about is the speed at which someone ascertains success. How come it takes some people a long time to get success, when to others success comes to them really fast, and for others, success never comes? Of course, “effort” contributes to it, but I wanted to focus on the speed or rate of change in getting it. It’s starting to sound like math and physics. One day on my school campus I observed the students traveling along Library Walk. Library walk is a long stretch of concrete about 25 feet in width with the length of a football field. And the time was at exactly an hour, so “waves” of students were amassing on Library Walk. This is when I noticed something interesting. In general, the way people travel on foot mimics the way we travel driving our cars on the road. When we have somewhere to go, we’re usually moving forward on the RIGHTSIDE, while people going the opposite direction are traveling on our LEFT. Not too unusual, right? Well, consider this. When I was traveling, I was going a lot slower than the other classmates that were headed in the same direction. We were all walking, yet I wasn’t keeping step. That’s when I noticed where I was. I was walking in the same direction, but my path coincided with the wave of people going OPPOSITE in my direction. I was constantly having to dodge, bob & weave my way through students going to where I came from. So I SHIFTED myself to the right and instantly found my stride becoming faster and easier, and I was headed to my destination a lot faster than just 5 seconds ago.
I asked myself, “If the change in positioning led to that much of a difference, can it be applied to Life?” Of course. And so I figured the theory of Streams. It’s easier to get to your destination if there’s a stream headed that way. And it’s a lot harder to get to your destination if you’re in a stream that’s going the opposite way. Take a conveyor belt for example, like that at Barona when you first walk in. If you enter Barona and decide to walk on the belt that’s going in, then you’ll have an easy to getting there. You don’t even have to walk, just stand and the belt will take you inside. But if you try walking on the belt that’s headed OUT, then you’ll have to put in MORE effort to get in since you’re going against it. Clear enough? The link above is a youtube clip of Finding Nemo where Marlin(Nemo’s dad), Dory(the bluefish), Crush(the turtle), and Squirt(the cuter turtle, Crush’s son) ride on the EAC which is a current/stream. In this current, they MOVE FAST. So consider your surroundings and which way the streams are going, where you want to go, and which stream you’re currently taking. It’s my best advice to constantly JUMP streams that will lead you to your destination/success. Real Life? If you hang out with 9 friends who just party and smoke and drink, then more than likely you’ll be the 10th to party, smoke, and drink. If you hang out with 9 millionaires, more than likely you yourself will be the 10th millionaire. Find people with common interests and find events and resources that foster fast streams to the destination you wish to go. Now, all I got to do is find 9 millionaires.
