Finding Your Rhythm

My niece, who I adore, is a swimmer. In fact, she is a ranked swimmer in her state and competes nationally. She is tall and lean and spends hours in the pool. I learned that competitive swimmers wear a particular swimsuit that helps their performance. In my amateur mind, I equate it to nylons or compression undergarments. I was told that it takes slow and intentional time to put on one of those new suits. A couple of weeks ago my niece was competing and didn’t have enough time to fully get her new suit on, and it impacted her race time. After her race, her coach immediately said “Your suit isn’t on correctly. I can tell because your kick was off.” I was amazed that something like that could have such an immediate (and undesired) impact on her rhythm and performance.

Along those same lines, a friend’s daughter is competing in a triathlon in a few days from the writing of this blog. Having done a few of them myself, albeit many years ago, we were talking about the importance of pacing and finding your rhythm. It is easy in those moments when adrenaline is high to start out faster than usual and burn out before the end of the race. I learned that lesson the hard way during my first experience. As I quickly launched myself into the lake and swam so rapidly that by the time I got to the final stage of the race, I could barely run and dragged myself across the finish line. Ugh!

Those two scenarios resonated with me as I have been conducting self-care workshops for educators as they head back to school for the fall. It’s one of my favorite times to be in the buildings. There is so much buzz and enthusiasm as educators reconnect and swap stories about their summer happenings. I love the positivity, sense of hope, and excitement for the year ahead. It’s a fresh start and there is renewed energy. What I don’t like about those moments is the unspoken fear or sentiment that those feelings are temporary and will quickly fade. Everyone starts out with high energy and by the end of the year (race) everyone is dragging.

That’s why I’ve begun highlighting the need to rethink the work-life balance idea and instead reframe our mindset to work-life harmony. In other words, finding that rhythm. It is a myth to think we can actually find balance holding that scale steady while attempting to successfully manage all the things. When we focus on one area, the other area is out of focus. Fully attending to personal needs (family, health, etc.) takes our attention off of work emails or other professional responsibilities and vice versa. I’m finding it helpful to consider it more like a dance. There are going to be times when we are moving quickly, doing the Cha-cha or disco, such as this time of year, heading back to school. Then there will be times when we can slow dance or waltz and catch our breath a little. Look for those moments and capitalize on them. Build up your reserves for those times when life is moving a little faster. Just like you would do for a race. Pace yourself. We are always moving forward; it’s just the speed that differs. We don’t always have to be going so fast. Look for the slower times, they are there if we pay attention. Make the most of them when they present themselves, so you can find your rhythm, allowing you to cross the finish line successfully.