Four years ago on Leap Day, I wrote a post titled “When It’s Crunch Time, Be Agile, Be Ready…and Be Still.”
Oh, if only I knew (if only we all knew) what was to befall the world two weeks later. But before the world turned upside down, I was somewhat happily mired in the busyness of life, both in my personal and professional life. I accepted busy as the norm. Even when I had a moment of downtime I used it to tick things off my to-do list. When the world shut down, and I found myself at home, the busyness increased–working for a healthcare organization in the midst of a global pandemic was not the most calming of situations, plus I thought the extra time at home would allow me to write a whole other book on top of preparing my memoir for publication.
No surprise — I had a manic episode that burned out into depression by May 2020, and that depression lingered until the beginning of 2023. Obviously maintaining balance in a moment of crisis is not one of my fortes.
One of the positive things that seems to have come out of the collective consciousness is the pushback on the false sense of urgency our fast-paced world, especially U.S. work culture, has bestowed on us. In 2022 and 2023 I noticed an urge to get everything done that we couldn’t do during lockdown, not dissimilar to my manic phase of trying to do everything at once when I thought I had extra time on my hands. Having experienced personal burnout, I was wary and kept my emotional guard up. That urge seems to have quieted against a new normal–promoting efficiency and productivity with boundaries. Unless you literally work in an emergency room, it is likely not an emergency. (And emergency doctors and nurses are some of the most chill people I’ve ever met.)
So, what to do with a whole extra day? I still like being busy and getting things done, but I also like this new sense of balance. I’d like to say that I have a bit more chill than I did four years ago–most of the time, anyway. I’m not doing anything extraordinary today. I have a medical appointment in the morning and an in-person work meeting in the afternoon. I’ll go to my black belt self-defense/grappling class and spend some downtime hanging out with my partner. The best thing I can do on an extra day is to simply be thankful I’m still here to see it through.
