Habits of Pressure…
Bringing clarity and vision to an overwhelmed mind in business and in life…
Growth in the Everyday…
Under pressure or some might say stress, we can succumb to our mental and physical daily habits we have created overtime. Pressure helps to reveal where our deep subconscious thoughts have been and what we have been choosing to absorb over some amount of time. In our fields of work and play everything is high pressure from high pressure sells, pressure to perform in the classroom, pressure to perform on the field and off the field. But in all its not an opportunity to beat ourselves up or down. Its an opportunity to grow in the right direction in our everyday mental and physical habits.
In the beginning weeks of October of this year (2023) the surf was pretty good, and I was very grateful I had some time to enjoy some waves. But I will say that one of my early morning dawn patrol surf sessions I got worked and as much as it was embarrassing, it was much needed. This one particular Saturday morning I wanted to surf and the main reason was pressure from the job. My mind was under a lot of pressure during the week so on the weekend its either a good surf session or hike (typically followed by a blog). I remember driving out to one of my favorite spots (Seal Beach) and while I felt good physically my mental was still under pressure. Typically, before I go out in the water, I stand on the beach to watch a few sets and find my place in the lineup. No matter if there is 1 or 10 people out in the water, I typically do this every time but this time I just went straight out into the water. On this particular day the one set of waves was just clean, and I knew where I wanted to be. I didn’t take any thought to anything else outside of that I wanted this pressure to be gone. As I paddled out I realized that I probably could have served to wait on the beach a few more minutes, but under pressure I just dove in.
On this particular Saturday while the sets of waves were nice and clean the backwash was horrible. I don’t know how I missed the backwash but no matter what my habit under pressure revealed that I missed an important detail, and my vision only wanted to see what I wanted to see.
Backwash is two waves colliding into each other. One wave is riding into the beach and the other wave is riding out away from the beach. Followed by a big splash when they collide that sends any and everything going up…
I missed a detail that came with an opportunity for me to be more mentally prepared before surfing, knowing the conditions. Because I rushed (my daily habit under pressure) I missed the right spots to be in. I was in a good spot for surfing, but I either worked really hard to catch a wave or got worked off my board and into the wave. Under pressure my vision only wanted to see exactly what It wanted to see. A clean set of waves and an empty spot to claim for myself to help relieve this pressure that has been building up all week long. The physical habit of retreating to a place like the water to surf and talk with others has been a habit that has been in practice for some time. But taking matters into my own hands and acting on what I want to only see has also been a physical habit that has been in practice for some time. I am realizing that the price I pay for this habit of physically reacting before mentally acting is tiresome. I rushed into the waves and worked for an hour that felt like three longs hours of surfing.
Learning to slow my mind and build trust…
Daily habits are our compounding interest that is at work every day for us. Our daily habits will lead us to the place we think we are meant to go. Where we place ourselves mentally is where we will physically place ourselves.
“And without faith it is impossible to please Yah, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6, NIV)
