No Peaks Without Valleys

I heard an ad for a new book entitled “Peaks and Valleys” by Dr. Spencer Johnson, the same guy who wrote “Who Moved My Cheese?”.

I haven’t read the book, nor did the ad make me want to read the book. But the ad did get me to think about its description of the book’s results: how to “have more peaks and fewer valleys” in your life.

I can somewhat agree with the other descriptive points: “get out of a valley sooner” and “stay on a peak longer”. But more peaks and fewer valleys? Every peak requires a valley, and every valley requires a peak. You can’t have more peaks than valleys, nor can you have more valleys than peaks.

Well, I suppose that, depending on where you start and where you end, you can have one more of one than the other, but the difference can be no more than one. You can’t have many more peaks than valleys.

many peaks and valleys

And staying on a peak longer just implies that you aren’t moving. You can loiter at the peak I suppose. Stay on a peak longer – if you’re happy where you are, then just don’t do anything different, and you’ll stay on that peak.

But these self-help/motivational-type books don’t want you to stay still – you need to go go go do do do be be be. So how do you stay on a peak longer while still moving?

peaks with plateau

To me, it looks like a plateau. But no one in that industry likes to have people plateau. “If you’re not advancing, you’re declining” or “if you’re not improving, you’re regressing”. I like plateaus though – they’re safer. You’re less likely to fall off a plateau than a peak, and the view from there is just as good.

The only way I see to have more peaks and fewer valleys while not plateauing is to have one big incline, like this:

one big slope up

But then you don’t really have a peak, since you never get to the top. And you never get to rest. And if you slip, it’s a long fall back all the way to the bottom with no valley to catch you.

“Why do you look with envy, O mountains with many peaks,At the mountain which God has desired for His abode?Surely the LORD will dwell there forever.”
– Psalm 68:16

Digg Del.icio.us Reddit Stumble Upon

This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 5:39 pm and has been carefully placed in the Marketing category.

3 Responses to “No Peaks Without Valleys”

  1. js Says:

    Why engineers never become motivational speakers.

  2. Burrill Says:

    …because they’re too busy being useful and producing things.

  3. js Says:

    Like blogs.

Leave a Reply

Comment moderation: please do not submit your comment multiple times, as comments are not posted until I approve them. If your comment never appears, that probably means that I didn't like your comment (maybe off topic, maybe spam, maybe not family-friendly, etc.).