The treadmill.

The treadmill can be a metaphor for life.

If something is mind-numbing or monotonous, we call it a treadmill. We call it that because we perceive that whatever we are doing has no value, and what we are doing isn’t going anywhere.

A treadmill goes round and round. A soul destroying journey to nowhere, with the only hope being the little red countdown to the end.

But how about this?

On a treadmill, you can go faster, and beat yesterday’s record. You can go slower, and work on your technique.

You can get into a rhythm, use the time to multitask, and experience or create something new with your eyes or your mind. You just have to learn to do that whilst your legs are doing something else.

If you wanted to, you can turn up the elevation and pretend to climb one side of Mount Kilimanjaro. Or turn the elevation downwards and feeling the leg-pumping joy of the other side.

For fun, you can work with ten friends to arrange your treadmills in a circle, and learn to leap from one to another in harmony.

You can use your treadmill to connect with others, to push each other to greater achievements, and feel the glow of your own.

A treadmill can be a chance. A chance to rescue self-esteem from despair. To change you from who are, to who you want to be. One forward motion at a time.

We just have to remember we are in control, where the controls are, and how to use them. And if we don’t know, to know we can ask for help. As hard as that might be.

We can also stop. We can get off, and try again tomorrow. Or we can get off, and never return.

It is all there, right in front of us. There is no reason for the one-speed, one-level rubber circle of doom.