Going in for a pit stop

We come out of turn three and I race to the inside, slipping in between car #51 and #9. I imagine the anger that the driver of car #51 must be spewing towards me. I expect that he’s raising his fist in fury at me. We’ve been trading spots all night, racing around the track at speeds in excess of 190 miles per hour. I’m only five cars now from the lead spot with less than 10 laps to go.

I make another move and I’m in third position. A centimeter here or there and the car next to me and I are “trading paint” as they say. Throw a few more centimeters in there and we’re roadkill on the macadam, a mess of tangled smoke, metal and steel.

Need for a rest

You’ve all seen the crashes on TV, shredded cars on the middle of the race track, so tore up that you’re surprised anyone could survive, let alone walk away from such a wreck. Oh, I’m writing about professional racing — NASCAR or Indy 500 racing — but I could easily be talking about horse racing at the Kentucky Derby or even the recent 400 or 800 meter races at the Paris Summer Olympics. And ironically, we’re not all that different from the race car drivers or horse jockeys we see on Television. Our lives are not all that different. We’re racing at crazy speeds be it up the corporate ladder, the school cafeteria line, or even the line at the grocery store, making a thousand different decisions in the blink of an eye, bumping and running into others, rarely taking a minute to focus and figure out what matters to us.

One day last week, I had five meetings, each 30 and 60 minutes long, with few if any breaks in between each one. Even with the meetings, I had to multitask fulfilling obligations and responsibilities that others were counting on me to finish on time. It’s not just those in the workforce, a retired friend of mine was joking the other day about having little time to stop and smell the roses.

However, when we stop or slow — either by force or by our own hand — the moments of clarity are, well, powerful.

Resuscitate, refocus, reimmerse

My blogger friend Kym Gordon Moore of From Behind the Pen wrote last week in her post, The Power We Hold on the importance of taking a break from our volatile world. Her words struck home to me. “Yes, I breathe and resuscitate myself daily with optimism, hope, continued learning, sharing, and motivating “me” so that I can inspire and motivate others. I don’t walk around with rose-colored glasses on, even when some may refer to me as a Pollyanna. The world can be volatile so massively and happen so quickly, especially in these days and times. Yet, I need not add to the problem, but be a critical component of the solution. Justice should continue to be blind, remain impartial, and not be used as a bargaining chip.”

Oh, I’m with Kym. I need moments of resuscitation to prioritize my health, well-being, and growth. It helps to reset and recalibrate, creating within me a renewed energy and focus. Refocusing reminds of the importance and beauty of words like justice and hope. I stop for a breather of sorts and see the good in others (and myself).

How it is in real life

For example, several years ago, I stepped down from a role with the company where I had worked for 20-plus years. I always imagined that I would retire from the company. I would work until I was well into my mid 60s and would ride off on a white horse and white hat and all would be great, but it wasn’t to be. I left for many reasons, but the biggest reason was that my contributions were no longer valued by the firm. I got tired too of fighting battles and injustices that seemed to be lost from the get-go.

I felt confused, lost, and angry. I moved onto another job, but, in many respects, I was still back at my old firm, upset with inequities and injustices I had fought so hard against. In time, though, I learned that I had lost a part of myself. I had wrapped my self-worth too closely in my job. My successes and failures on the job affected how I felt about myself. I was in a state of constant comparison with others and seeking my boss’ approval. I was on a hamster wheel that would never stop.

It took leaving to find myself again . . . to be me again.

Seeing the big picture

I’ve resuscitated myself in other ways too. For years, I’ve taken an annual hike in the Autumn up a challenging mountain near where I grew up. The trail travels upward more than 900 feet for close to 1.5 miles. Local trail guides describe the hike as “doable, but still very challenging.”

For me, it’s posed a nice measure of my physical and mental state of mind. In recent years, I’ve bounded up the trail, my mind on other things, everything from home worries to the news headlines that pop our daily balloons.

My mind may have been somewhere else, but in short order, I’ve found myself quickly out of breath, pulled from the worries of the here and now. I’ll be gasping for breath focused completely on the next step. When I do have time to think, it’s not about who’s taken a shot at whom or the good guys versus the bad guys, but instead, simply on surviving.

How am I faring on the trail? How many stops do I need to take? When’s the next best stopping point?

When I hit the mid-way point, I find that I reflect and see things that I haven’t seen before. I see a beautiful leaf that has God’s fingerprints. I thank him for his majesty. When a hiker coming down the trail waves and encourages me by telling me how wonderful the view is all the top, I smile to myself. I’m reminded that yes the world is hard. Yes, there’s lots of craziness, but there’s good too.

Finding yourself

My attempts to refocus have not come without challenges, but they’ve been worth the effort. I thought motivational speaker and author Mel Robbins described the effort perfectly: “You’ll always feel a little bit lost right before you find yourself again.”

Yes, getting lost has its advantages.

We all need to refocus from time to time. We all need a lengthy pit stop to help us to see whole again. How about you? How do you refocus and resuscitate yourself?