Knocking Over the Dumbbell Stack, Key Logs, and Exponential Change

Knocking over the neatly stacked dumbbells is incredibly embarrassing. At the end of a long day of coaching, we also dread the tipped over stacks. Once one stack goes, it usually tipped over several more and the clean up is like any other mess, except this mess weighs hundreds of pounds. 

Unless you find the Key Log. 

Well, in this case, it’d be the “key dumbbell,” but hear me out. The “key log” is a concept that Coach Julian Pineau brought to my attention about a decade ago. He was referring to loggers who would send freshly cut logs down a river as free transport of the timber. Oftentimes these logs would get jammed and once you had a pile up, someone would have to come free the logs to allow them to continue to flow down the river. 

Unbeknownst to anyone except these loggers, there’s a specific role for this person to free the logs and his/her role was predicated on their ability to find the “key log.” The key log, of course, is the one log that when moved would free the rest. If you don’t find the key log, you’ll have to move them all one by one, which is by definition much more work than finding the right one. 

The reason I rehashing tipped over dumbbell stacks and Julian’s logging example is that they are all metaphors. Just yesterday the dumbbells were knocked over and rather than frustratingly ripping each one out and stacking them all again, I looked for my “key log,” found it, and removed it. Then, it was quite easy to tip the remaining stacks back up vertically and move on. 

When you can locate the single factor that unlocks everything else that isn’t right, we’re working smarter, not harder. For example, many of you reading right now, would probably lose weight, feel better, miss less gym sessions, and have less anxiety if you went to bed earlier. Or, you could try to not doom scroll, snack late at night, spiral about the State of the Union, wake up when you’re exhausted, go to the gym regardless of how bad you feel, etc. Catch my drift?

Find your “key log” and let the rest flow, people.