From Shevonne’s Desk:
Live your life as a series of sprints, rather than as a marathon. Seek stress, rather than avoid it. See down time as productive rather than wasted time. Focus on managing energy rather than managing time. Wow! When I stumbled upon these statements in the book The Power of Full Engagement a few days ago, they resonated for me because of one of my recent successful experiences.
For several years, I fantasized about qualifying for the Boston Marathon. Yet while I consistently prepared for marathon after marathon by increasing my mileage weekly, I could not make the qualifying time. Then one of my running partners created a training plan for me adding interval workouts on the track and fartlek runs with recovery days. This plan forced me to get out of my comfort zone and push my muscles past their normal limits. Two months later I landed my goal with minutes to spare.
Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, the book’s authors, assert that to become fully engaged and perform well personally and professionally, in all realms of our lives be this emotionally, spiritually, intellectually or physically, we must get out of our comfort zones, challenge our equilibrium, press our limits and then take time for recovery and renewal before repeating the process. Creating new routines and rituals, like an athlete’s training regime, they maintain, is how we build new emotional, spiritual, physical and intellectual muscles and how true individual growth is sustained.
For example, if we want to become more empathetic to others, we must do more than say we want to be more empathetic and continue to behave in the same way. We must work on building a new emotional muscle by pushing ourselves to listen to others without interjecting, practicing how to be reflective, concentrate on hearing their story and refrain from offering up suggested solutions. Then we should take a break; renew ourselves and go back out there. Eventually, we will build new muscles of empathy and these new behavior patterns will become routine.
Sounds simple, right? Not at all. Making such a shift in our beliefs takes significant courage and is often fraught with our own resistance. As I can attest to, allowing myself to experiment with a new way of marathon training was frightening, physically demanding, stress inducing and at first, exhausting. Nonetheless, when I became fully engaged, the result was terrific.
The principles Loehr and Swartz subscribe to may or may not speak to you. However, if there are some muscles you want to target strengthening in any aspect of your life, be they patience, passion, self-confidence or flexibility, you may want to explore their ideas in more depth. Go find in a bookstore or ask your local librarian to order it for you. It is chalk full of principles and examples of new rituals to help guide you on this journey. Experiment with these new rituals/routines in small doses. Reflect upon your progress in writing. Recover for a bit and then get back in there and keep strengthening those new muscles.
Keep in mind that any form of stress prompting discomfort has the potential to expand our capacity and our performance as long as it is followed by adequate recovery. Let’s see what new muscles you can develop this spring and summer.
See you on the PATH Ahead,
Shevonne Travers and the VEHI PATH Team