Life is full of transitions. Some people flourish in that dramatic state of flux. There’s something to be learned from those folks – the ability to thrive through chaos.
As our company grows, which is very exciting, we invite new tendencies, new outlooks, new opinions, and new exciting ideas about health. Put several minds together and your health think-tank balloons.
Today we added Kim to our think tank.
I was giving her a tour of our swag closet and welcoming her with mugs, hats, pedometers, stability balls, and other trinkets, when she asked, “So are you an avid exercise fanatic?
Funny. Great question for a newbie to a wellness company. A quick and farcical “Noooo” tried to burst forth but I caught it. Hold on now, I used to be avid. What happened? And, what if she is? I didn’t want to be judgy.
“Well,” I answered thoughtfully, “at one time, yes, but I’ve been building this business these past few years so, not so much now.”
“You were creating other fruits of labor then,” she said.
“That’s a kind way to put it. I’m working on getting my mojo back, but… Well… Hey, here’s a cool hat.” And then I was sad. I was a collegiate athlete; Big Ten, D1, co-captain, Olympic hopeful, blah, blah, blah. I used to get that opiate rush from training. I want to be a role model and be that dedicated again, to breath hard from extreme effort like that again, I thought.
Sigh. Wait. New Kim is right… Other fruits.
Ironically, I then sat down to write and a blogger named Jonathan Saar popped into my inbox with a post titled, “What Matters Most,” tapping right into Kim’s point. I’ve become a different kind of fanatic. The dedication I once gave to my team has not been lost, it’s otherwise focused. The sweat is less tangible but equally breathless.
The body that goes with this other kind of focus is not quite the same as the athlete’s (note spare tire building around my waist), but the outcomes and the journey are as rich and rewarding.
Daniel Pink, in his book Drive, talks about the importance of being engaged in what you’re doing, that it must have meaning and present adequate challenge; that it intrigue or fascinate. Your goal is self fulfilling, he says, when the activity is the joy itself. This is the idea of “Flow” first coined by renowned positive psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced Cheek-sent-me-hi). When you’re in Flow, you are your best self, in the zone, intrinsically motivated to leap tall buildings in a single bound to reach your goal.
Apart from my family, PATH has been and remains my joy, my flow. It stays as such because of the people with whom we interact and serve. What matters most, Jonathan says? People, of course; a PATH mantra.
People took me off the trail of the hard-core athlete and onto the shared PATH of the everyday-you-and-me; those who work toward a happy ending, an Olympic ideal, and the hope of great strength in character at the close of each day. I love being here. And… If we (I) can learn to add a little more devotion to being here while also exercising, we really will have found the fountain of youth.
Flow is worth a little extra pudge around my middle, as long as I’m striving toward those 5-a-day and that 30 minutes. And this, I believe, is the essence of thriving. It’s not hard-core perfection, it’s pure well-being.
I’m game to keep reaching for that fountain, how about you?
Share your ideas for fitting exercise into your worldly dreams on the PATH Ahead.