When Surviving Is Your Only Job (And What Comes Next)

Recently, I was in the thick of something really hard — grief — and surviving was my only job. Life was turned upside and pulled in all different directions, my only job was my biggest job yet. I gave my body rest, I ate nourishing and comforting food, I moved my body, I kept in contact with loved ones, I showed up to my basic work responsibilities, and I asked for grace and flexibility from the world and myself. Something I wish I did more of, and am working on now, is giving myself that grace and flexibility I asked from everyone else.

Grief was once a dense fog, and is now part of my life that lives alongside joyous times, hard moments (both related and totally unrelated to grief), the neutral parts of life, and everything in between. 

Although, life can still feel uncertain (that’s life, huh?) I have more capacity and appetite for what’s beyond surviving. I have more physical energy and I’m dancing and bopping around town. My mind is awake and ideas are moving quickly.  All exciting things – and I’m teaching myself how to pace myself. That may seem counterintuitive to this new flood of energy, but I need it to sustain myself because I’m in it for the long haul. 

I'm in a triathlon, not a 100 meter dash. And maybe you are too. Whether you're building a company or team, rebuilding yourself, or somewhere in the fog still figuring out which direction is forward — the work is rarely about going faster. It's about staying in the race with enough left in you to keep going. 

That's what I'm learning. And it's what I love helping people figure that out too.