Everyone needs an eddy ... but, what is it?
What is an eddy? It's where you learn to rest and breathe while mapping out your next route on the river. Every leader needs to learn how to find an eddy. We can help you.
Plenty of thoughts come to mind when we hear the name eddy?
Thought one: Cousin Eddy.
Thought Two: Cousin Eddy.
While I have nothing against cousin Eddy, I don’t think everyone needs one.
What eddy are we talking about?
We’re talking about the kind of eddy I found on the river when I was 15. We were white water kayaking and the guide taught me to navigate the changing currents, read the river, and find the eddy. There’s more to the story, but that’s for another time.
Here’s how www.kayakguru.com describes the eddy:
“Eddies can be great places to stop while you’re making your way down rapids, as they can give you a chance to pause and catch your breath before you hit the next run.
They can also be ideal for using to map your route downstream, letting you bounce from one eddy to the next as you make your way down river.
But getting in and out of the eddies may not always be easy because of the conflicting currents at the eddy lines. For this, it can be a good idea to identify the eddy lines.”
I think we can call agree that having an opportunity to pause and catch our breath would be nice. Many of us were hustling before COVID 19 and now we are living with uncertainty and often times a lack of clarity. It’s exhausting.
What if we could pause and catch our breath? And more than that, what if we could map our route?
Meaning - what if we know where we were going and what are next steps are to get there. That’s why finding the eddy is so important. Otherwise we let the current take us and we might not always like where we end up.
Finding the eddy is not always easy. My first time trying to get into one ended with me sucking air in 40 degree water and trying to climb back into the kayak as quickly as possible! Navigating the shift in current nailed me.
We are going to feel that way often. It’s jolting to find the eddy. And yet, it’s necessary.
We are kicking off our Find The Eddy course. It’s a one-month, highly interactive coaching group. Each group is limited to six participants.
We will talk about how to find the eddy (rest) during the hustle and grind and how to take advantage of the rest to make sure you get to where you need to go and enjoy the ride.
Remember What's Important
Work. Stress. Frustration. Home … It’s easy to let work take over (and justify it). We need to pull into the eddy and remember what is most important.
Remember what’s important
Last night I was watching Secretariat with my 13-year-old son. He's captivated by pretty much any movie that has to do with anything sports-related.
About half-way through the movie, everything seems to be falling apart. Red, the horse, is not eating or running. The owner leveraged everything she had on the horse winning the triple crown. In those moments it seemed like everything was falling apart after everything had been going so well.
As I was watching that section of the movie, I felt like those 4 minutes summed up my day. It was the kind of day when nothing was going right. Proposals weren't signed, friends were getting divorced, and the list goes on.
All of a sudden, what they thought was a life-changing issue was not a big deal.
It seems that way in life. We put so much stock into what happens today that we can forget what can happen tomorrow. A few years ago if I had a day that didn't go as planned, I would have stayed up all night working because of my short-sighted view of the big picture. I would have justified skipping:
story time with my four kids (3 boys and 1 little girl)
watching a movie with my son
sipping wine with my wife
Let's be honest, a few years ago that happened often!
My business is much healthier now than when I started, but my ability to remember what's important and not let bad moments ruin my day and shift my focus has improved as well.
I hope to dominate life at work. But if some days I miss out on dominating life at work - that's no excuse for missing out on loving life at home.
Let's remember that there is more to life than what happens today. While what happens today is essential it shouldn't ruin our ability to engage with who and what is most important. We can always rest, wake up tomorrow and get back after it.
How do you keep yourself from forgetting what's important in life when life doesn't go your way?