I’ll never forget the park ranger’s presentation at the edge of the Kilauea volcano crater that day, Hawaii 2022.
She explained that the volcano actually breathes. It’s always expanding and contracting in a measurable way. Then, unexpectedly, she gave each person a piece of paper and had us draw our life history as periods of expansion (line going up) and retraction (line going down).
The ranger was making the analogy between the volcano’s activity and periods of change – up, down, expand, contract, however you define it – in our own lives. And pointing out that all the states are normal and necessary, moving in a cycle.
Cycles are amazingly common in nature, but unfortunately becoming lost in modern corporate life. Instead of on and off, we are always on. Instead of busyness and and rest, we have year-round activity. And for many, over the course of a day, instead of work and rest, we have work work work and then try to sleep.
Even professional athletes get an off season, while we leaders are always expected to maintain our high performance.
We seem to have forgotten about cycles.
Where can we find cycles again, and how can they serve us? Here are some ideas:
The daily cycle.
I have in my mind the beautific (and likely inaccurate) image of a farmer walking back to their house by light of the setting sun. The day’s work is done. Nowadays, it’s hard to get that sense of daily accomplishment. Day blurs into night. What habits help us create that feeling of separation and completion?
The yearly cycle.
Our leadership work can be performed on any day in any season, with few external forces providing a pause. There are practices that help instill cycles – yearly retreats, end of year shutdowns, and (hopefully) taking vacations. It might be interesting to look at your year, the one coming up and ask – when are the busy/less busy seasons and how can we accentuate the “down” times for ourselves and our teams?
Project cycles.
Projects never seem to end, especially big ones like developing a drug. And we have so many going at the same time that finishing one is just a small liberation of space to work on a different one.. Teams often struggle with closure and even taking time to celebrate a success. What would it take to done with something and having that delicious space of completion even if only for a little while?
Ok, I’m at the end of my creative “exhale” for the moment. Perhaps you want to pick it up here and think about some ways to bring cycles back to your work and life, and what the benefits might be.
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