I was sitting in San José international airport in Costa Rica.
I was flying “standby” for a two week surf trip because my friend worked for Qantas (that trip is another story…).
Anyway I looked up and saw some TV screens playing a triathlon.
It was a replay of the Hawaii Ironman triathlon World Champs. I was mesmerised.
At the airport, they had these delicious cinnamon buns for sale – “cinna-buns.” They were huge, the icing was melting in the heat and humidity.
I had a long layover (in fact, thanks to standby, it could have really gone on forever) , so I sat on the hard chair eating my second cinna-bun, watching this epic race.
And here we have the watching-doing difference.
The thing is, it’s not boring to watch. In fact, it can feel pretty real. I was excited watching these amazing humans.
We enjoy the tennis – watching. We open Facebook – watching. It goes further.
When we travel in a car down a mountain road, we are still watching. We aren’t doing anything. In fact, James Carse points out in Finite and Infinite Games that the car exists purely for us to do nothing. The car travels (it’s doing tons of work when you think about it!), we sit and watch.
We can push the “watching” aspect pretty far.. Yet still, it can feel exciting.
Watching the action from the sidelines can actually feel like you’re participating. There are distinct physiological shifts. I’m sure many people have even passed out with excitement during their favourite team’s sports game.
When we add HD, 4K, surround sound and now VR into the mix, it’s entirely possible to get a pretty good stimulus while passive.
The main difference between the two then seems to come from some form of risk – of “involvement,” or “skin in the game,” or even emotional labour.
While here I have used physical endeavours as an example, it turns out that the watching/doing difference exists everywhere – how we work, how we interact and how we “engage” across all mediums. Do we sit back in the group and listen? Or do we squeeze ourself in to express something? To create something?
However, the physical domain does teach us an important lesson that carries across everything else:
While it may feel exciting to sit there with a “cinna-bun” and watch the event, the growth lies in getting out of your chair and toeing the start line.
