However Kaavan was kept alone with his rear leg chained in place and no space to do the kind of elephanty things he would naturally do.
As you can guess, Kaavan wasn’t ‘dancing’, he was suffering from psychological distress.
This is called an ‘evolutionary mismatch’ – Kaavan was living in an environment for which he had not evolved.
Kaavan’s story has a happy ending, but before we get there let me tell you about this other species, called ‘humans’.
Katie works at one of the world’s best consultancy firms.
She is super bright, conscientious…and miserable.
These are some of the features of her days:
6:45am: Wakes up, checks emails 📧
9-12:30pm: Mostly in meetings 🤝
12:30-6pm: Largely pinned to her desk, eats sandwich at desk 🖥️
7-9pm: Sometimes goes to a gym class but recently stopped as too tired 🥱
9-11:30pm: Watches TV and scrolls on her phone until late 📱
3am: Often wakes feeling anxious. 😰
My research shows that Katie is not alone, with the majority of knowledge workers recognising this kind of daily routine (something I call the flat line).
So where does that leave us?
I would suggest it leaves us a bit like Kaavan.
Many of us are unhappy because we are in an evolutionary mismatch.
We are far too sedentary, we lack daylight, our attention is distracted, our recovery is often just respite in the form of more screens, we feel connected but alone.
So what happened to Kaavan?
The good news is that Kaavan was eventually rescued by Cher, the American entertainer, who as we know is a strong believer in life after love.
But what about us?
I guess Cher might rescue us, too.
But until that time there are things we can do to reduce our evolutionary mismatch and live and work more like humans.
In the next post I will set out the principles of just such a routine, but for now, a question:
What’s currently the most effective part of your daily routine?
