Turn, turn, turn
I started the year with a ton of energy, and I had a busy January. As I roll into February, my brain feels full to the brim.
Oops, I did it again.
Now, I pause.
The only way I can make sense of decade after decade of work is to push back against the linear march of it all. I can’t bear the idea of tasks waiting in an endless row, or perpetually racing to a distant finish. Call me a rebel or a swirly girl or whatever, but I hate straight lines.
One alternative is to view work as phases of a natural cycle. I suggest a fairly simple and familiar pattern:
Seed > Cultivate > Harvest > Rest ( > Repeat)
P.S. Harvest is also a time for celebration. 🎉
You can apply this framework to a specific idea or project, to a role, or to your body of work as a whole. To do so, pause and consider:
How’s your energy? What’s your capacity?
Where are you in this cycle?
How will your choices (your actions) represent that?
Your answers will help you discern. There will be a time for sprinting and taking chances, a time when consistency and patience (not speed or strength) are critical, a time to leverage gains, and, thankfully, a time to rest. Turn, turn, turn.
My situation, 02..02.23.
I won’t pretend that I always remember to do this. I’m rarely graceful. And outside pressures clip my wings more than I care to admit. However, I never regret pausing to inquire. In this case☝🏼, I avoided the temptation and dead end of continuing my January pace, which worked well last month but is unsustainable long-term.
More importantly, I’m gaining self-awareness. Not only can I see my limits, but I’m learning to work with them. Rather than ignoring, regretting, or cursing them, I can read them. They are becoming my guide and map on this winding road.
Call it one of the mercies of the road: that we see it only by stages as it opens before us, as it comes into our keeping, step by single step.
— Jan Richardson, For Those Who Have Far to Travel
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