YOU GOT RHYTHM?

HOW ARE YOU RAD ONE?

FOR REAL.

It's February.  Sometimes it's Winter.  Sometimes it's Spring.

It's still the beginning of a new year so we continue to strive to implement New Year changes toward the goals we've set for a "post-pandemic" year. 

You know, a life back to normal.

ANYONE ELSE FEEL LIKE A SQUIRREL?  

The squirrel who seems to see the vehicle racing down the road toward them then makes the frenzied, last minute decision to get to the other side, panics, changes it's mind 37 times in the middle of the road and...

For the love of Lulu.

I have the RHYTHM of a squirrel. ;)

In an effort to improve my groove, to BE BETTER, I consume and do a lot of personal development work.  It's super messy. 

I learned a concept around RHYTHM recently that blew my mind:

Whether we LEAD a team, a business, an organization or a FAMILY, establishing a RHYTHM OF REPEATED PATTERNS OF CONNECTION is vital to creating a sense of CO-CREATION, of working in UNISON. 

WITHOUT a rhythm of repeated rituals of connection, we feel like we are operating in emergency mode, we feel DISCONNECTED, ISOLATED and BURNED OUT.

Anyone picking up what I'm layin' down here?

Okay, I'll back up a bit.  

Last year was a doozy for our family, as it was for many folks.  We were putting one foot in front of the other doing the best we could navigating our big, hard life. 

My excellent Sister-Outlaw visited just before Christmas. We were cramming in a speed-date in the car between coffee deliveries and a medical appointment when I shared the holy fuck of our current vibe and she said: "Yeah, we had Friday family movie nights that were non-negotiable, no sleep overs, just us and then we went for pancake breakfasts at MacDonalds Saturday mornings". 

I didn't understand what she was saying.  We have movie nights.  We do stuff together.

BUT WE DIDN'T HAVE A REGULAR RITUAL OF CONNECTION.

I was not raised with regular rituals of connection either.  

Families who sit at the table to eat dinner together every night or those who gather every Sunday for a family dinner, partners who keep regular date nights or have a ritual of going for Sunday drives, folks who go to the market or rip the bike trails every Saturday or meet Wednesday evenings for book club or dart night or play pickleball, have all created time for regular rituals of connection with their people.

We lived in chaos, in reaction, juggling more that we could handle and randomly creating distracted slices of time to "connect" even before "the doozy year" last year. 

We had no idea how important it is to create and commit to regular rituals of intentional time together.  We didn't even know it was a thing. 

This explained so much for us.

Now back to the squirrel.

 

One of the kazillion things discussed during the pandemic was the realization of how crazy busy and distracted our lives were prior to the pandemic. There were many discussions focused on "real self-care", how to slow down, to change our rhythm to incorporate healthy practices and boundaries to support ourselves, to develop our resilience.

We spent so much time living in fear and isolation through the pandemic. 

It was awful.

For many, it was brutal.  

Our main source of interaction was through a screen. 

While digital access to our people was "something", for me, it did not allow for real connection.

NOW HERE WE ARE.

We are all excited to be able to plan, to travel, to be together, to get

BACK TO NORMAL.

BUT WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

In my conversations with folks, people are sharing they are fried, already burned out, lacking drive and inspiration. 

FOLKS FEEL OVERWHELMED.

My thought is NO WONDER we are all out of step.

For many of us, our "normal", our RHYTHM BEFORE THE PANDEMIC, was UNHEALTHY.

DURING the pandemic we were knocked off our feet in fear and isolation.

NOW, in our delight to "go back to normal", WE PICK UP OUR OLD RHYTHM.

It's the TENSION between OLD muscle memory and our NEW groove we haven't quite nailed yet so we WIPE OUT. 

THE SQUIRREL.

I share this because not only was I oblivious to the importance of regular, intentional time to connect with my family before and during the pandemic, I was also oblivious to the importance of regular, intentional time I set aside for myself.  

SLOW YOUR ROLL.  

I am learning that to LEAD, to develop a rhythm to truly connect with my kids, my husband, my people, I must first DEVELOP A NEW RHYTHM OF CONNECTION WITH MYSELF.  

Change is good, hard and messy.

SO SOME DAYS I HAVE THE RHYTHM OF A SQUIRREL.